Friday Fish Wrap: March 4, 2011

Well, the best laid plans o’ mice and men leaves us right here at home rather than on the way to Louisiana in the morning. The flights are slammed just enough for these two ‘non-revenue’ pass riders to not be able to get on the flights. Had I known, I might’ve gone skiing today.

Damn, where did I put that crystal ball?

Oh, Newly Frugal Guy might know where it is…

Don’t you love that? There are a lot of Newly Frugal Guys around these days, crying the blues over deficits that didn’t seem to matter just a couple of years ago.

Now, let’s get interactive, and you - the average taxpayer - now have a chance to slice and dice the budget yourself. Don’t just say how somebody else should do it - and what they should save or toss. You give it a try.

There’s an interactive budget reducing exercise and some fascinating analysis how just how the average American is better at cutting the deficit than our elected representatives at the Program on Public Consultation.

Apparently, people who haven’t been at the military-industrial complex lobbying trough, have a much easier time making cuts to something other than social programs, and can even step up to tax the rich. In fact, it seemed that the average American could trim the deficit by more than $1 trillion without sacrificing very much. Surprisingly, Tea Party folks seemed to struggle with the entire exercise, according to folks at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, where the exercise was conducted.

The only part that was beyond the reach of the exercise was grappling with the ballooning costs of healthcare.

Here’s how mine came out - and I threw huge sums of money at NASA, veterans programs, medical research (hey, I’m a cancer survivor!) and every level of education …

Hmmmm. I’ve given the country a $40 billion surplus. It seems like the only way to get real action on the deficit, is to take the lobbyists money away from our legislators. Then they might be able to do the ‘right thing’ rather than what will bring in campaign money.

And just think what a difference this would make at the increasingly desperate state levels - without all the Medicaid, block grant money and such that’s been taken away. And, much of my success in the exercise seems to have stemmed from increasing the share of taxes paid by the uber-wealthy and corporations - in addition to some rather draconian cuts to military spending.

This deficit fight is just so much horse shit, smoke and mirrors, political theater by egotistical meglomaniacs who are jockeying for power broker positions … all to keep the lobbyists that are paying the bills happy.  Unfortunately, it’s average Americans who will take it in the shorts after K Street and their Capital Hill ‘Ho’s’ (Blue or Red) bail to their respective rat holes - but not before John Boehner takes another stab at trying to convince America that they’re going to have to suck it up and see the error of their prolificate ways when it comes to Social Security or Medicare.

But John’s got his, right? Easy for him to tell Grannie to sacrifice for the greater good?

Meanwhile, it looks like Rory Reid got caught out, funneling campaign money through phoney PAC’s - to the tune of about $750,000. This is thoroughly regrettable. It happens on both sides. But, I said it and I heard it - campaign finance reform, and publicly financed campaigns.  The first candidate to take a nickle from a PAC or other source other than the Treasury Dept. goes directly to jail. Can’t pass Go.

What’s so hard to understand about the lure of money, and why it needs to be controlled in our political process?

I had some thoughts about the recent Supreme Court decision on Rev. Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Freak Squad - those kind folks who show up at military funerals with cruel signs. They may be exercising their First Amendment rights, but can’t we insist that they exercise them from a decent distance away from the grieving families? Like about five miles away? Or at the nearest sewage treatment facility?

They may have First Amendment rights, but I would think that the families of dead soldiers have some rights, too. Like the right to not be harassed.

Oh, you should read the Opinion in the Las Vegas Sun, by Brian Greenspun - Nevadans Choose Taxes Over Ideology. Damn straight, but once again, if all you do is listen to the pols and their lobbyist mouthpieces, you’d be forgiven if you think otherwise.

The more time we all waste trying to figure out how many ways to slice, dice and allocate a single grain of rice - without having the honest, adult conversation about raising revenues/taxes - the longer this crap will go on,  the more people will get hurt, and the longer it will take for the state to recover.

Mining and gaming is a nice place to start the discussion, but taking a look at corporate income tax might be very grown up, too. Especially if nobody can summon up the cojones to look the individual state income tax boogeyman in the eye. Evidently, a lot of Nevadan’s seem willing to consider this prospect if it benefits our state’s disgraceful excuse for an educational system.

In a recent poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies for the Retail Association of Nevada, showed that when given a choice between a tax increase and cuts to education and health care, 52 percent of respondents chose more taxes and 37 percent favored cuts. Hmmmm. Big talk about cutting deficits by slashing programs sounds good until folks start thinking it through, and what it means in practical terms. Who woulda’ thunk it? In fact, 55% of the respondents thought a corporate income tax was a dandy idea - ( refer to the top of this post, regarding how real citizens can make sensible choices in government spending when not being unduly influenced by lobbyists).

I heard that Sue Lowden has had a few problems catching up those pesky old campaign bills. Help her out -  send some chicken soup.

Bwahahahaha! I crack myself up.

Hey, have a sweet weekend.

Cheers.

-maven

Comments

[bluelyon]

Girl, you crack me up too. Yep, I read that Rory story and all I could think of was "Example # 142,333 as to why we need campaign finance reform."