Tag Archives: Spending

News

John Boehner vs Nancy Pelosi – who wastes taxpayer money?

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House Republican Leader John Boehner

Consider this story from The Hill about John Boehner’s decision to fly commercial airlines between Washington, D.C. and Ohio.

Excerpt:

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), the presumptive Speaker-elect of the House, will not use a private jet as Speaker for trips back and forth to his home district, he said Wednesday.

“Over the last 20 years, I have flown back and forth to my district on commercial aircraft, and I’m going to continue to do that,” Boehner told reporters at a press conference.

The statement signals the first time since 2001 that a House Speaker has traveled commerically between Washington and their home district.

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Speaker of the House, third in line to the presidency, was assigned a designated Air Force jet to shuttle them back and forth to their home districts on weekends.

Former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) used the jet, as does Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). In 2007, Pelosi requested, and received, a larger jet than Hastert had used — this one capable of flying between Washington and California without stopping to refuel.

A spokesman for Boehner said the Minority Leader had already spoken to security officials about his desire to travel commercially on the weekends, and that he would still use military transport for certain types of trips, like those to Afghanistan or Iraq.

That’s why he’s running for the Speaker of the House uncontested. This is a serious man of principle.

On the other hand, Nancy Pelosi wasted millions ferrying herself and her family around the world on military aircraft, all at taxpayer expense.

Excerpt:

We recently obtained new documents from the United States Air Force detailing Speaker Pelosi’s use of United States Air Force aircraft between March 2009 and June 2010. And they pretty much tell the same, outrageous story as previous documents we’ve uncovered and released.

Here are the highlights from the newest batch of documents, which we obtained pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on January 25, 2009:

  • Pelosi used the Air Force aircraft for a total of 85 trips, covering 206,264 miles, from March 2, 2009 through June 7, 2010. Pelosi, her guests and Air Force personnel logged a total of 428.6 hours on these flights.
  • Members of Pelosi’s family were guests on at least two flights. On June 20, 2009, Speaker Pelosi’s daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons joined a flight from Andrews Air Force Base to San Francisco International Air Port. That flight included $143 in on-flight expenses for food and other items. On July 2, 2010, Pelosi took her grandson on a flight from Andrews Air Force Base to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, which is northeast of San Francisco.

According to previous documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, the Speaker’s military travel cost the United States Air Force $2,100,744.59 over a two-year period — $101,429.14 of which was for in-flight expenses, including food and alcohol. Seriously, review these documents for yourself and you can see that Nancy Pelosi repeatedly turned indispensible Air Force aircraft into congressional party planes.

For example, purchases for one Pelosi-led congressional delegation traveling from Washington, DC, through Tel Aviv, Israel to Baghdad, Iraq May 15-20, 2008, included: Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Maker’s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewar’s scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey, Corona beer and several bottles of wine.

The article also notes that Pelosi would reserve military aircraft all the time, and cancel her reservations at the last minute.

Videos

Can Michele Bachmann give the mid-term voters what they want?

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Michele Bachmann

Well, this left-wing Washington Post article explains what the mid-term voters voted for when they elected so many Republicans. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Americans’ agenda is simple. In broad terms, they want the government to spur job growth, but not by subsidizing more government jobs with taxpayer dollars. They want Washington to balance the budget and reverse the growing influence of government on daily life. They want the government to encourage success, allow failure, punish those who break the law – and then get out of the way. And above all, they want politicians to follow through on their promises, even if that means tempering those promises in the first place.

They also show clear support for the following five ideas:

  1. Balance the budget as quickly as possible through meaningful spending reductions, a hard spending cap and a constitutional amendment so that it never gets unbalanced again.
  2. Eliminate all earmarks until the budget is balanced, then require a two-thirds vote by Congress for future earmark legislation.
  3. Keep taxes down by requiring supermajorities for increases, and eventually enact tax reform with a simple, low, fair rate that drastically reduces the length of the IRS code.
  4. Create a blue-ribbon task force that engages in a complete, line-by-line forensic audit of federal agencies and programs to end waste and reduce red tape and bureaucracy.
  5. And require Congress to provide specific constitutional authorization for every bill it passes so that the government stays within the boundaries imagined by the founders.

One more thing: Voters want their representatives home in their districts and holding monthly town halls. The worst strategic mistake House Democrats made this year was canceling scores of public meetings, denying their constituents the chance to be heard. Hell hath no fury like a voter silenced, so the voters spoke in unison on Election Day.

I’ve found that each of these policies has at least 60 percent public support, so if you agree with most of them, it means you’re in the American mainstream. It also means that – wait for it – you agree with the tea party.

These points come directly from the tea-party-backed “Contract From America,” a document compiled from and voted on by the various tea party organizations and promoted by FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group. This governing agenda is supported not only by conservatives, but also by largely nonideological, anti-political voters in the middle.

Now let’s see what Michele has to say about it:

You can see a much sharper version of the video at Gateway Pundit.

News

Top academic warns of collapse of European economy

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From the SA Times Live web site – top academic warns of economic collapse in Europe. (H/T Mary)

Excerpt:

Dennis Lachman, a professor in economics at Georgetown University and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, said at a conference on monetary policy and financial stability at the Reserve Bank on Thursday he has little doubt about this.

“The only question is how long the governments in the northern part of Europe can keep kicking the can forward by financing a trillion dollars here and a trillion dollars there to keep the party going for a little bit longer.

“We are talking about a currency arrangement that was flawed from the start.”

Lachman said the default of Greece or Ireland by the end of next year was another certainty.

“The important thing is that we are not talking about problems only in Europe’s periphery; we are talking about problems in the European banking system.

“Their inter-linkages with the European banking system makes this of concern. It is not only for the European economy, but what we have learned from the Lehman (Brothers) debacle and the sub-prime debacle is that these kinds of crises have a habit of being global in scope.”

Lachman said at the end of 2009 the exposure of French banks to the so-called PIIGS countries (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain,) was around 37% of France’s gross domestic product. For Germany the exposure is 21% of GDP.

A write down of the debt of these countries would thus result in a shock for economies that haven’t fully adjusted to the Lehman shock, he said.

A euro crisis would coincide with the US economy either double-dipping or flirting with a double-dip, Lachman said.

I found two related videos on Verum Serum.

Austerity measures:

Rioting in Ireland:

The good news is that Americans have voted to avoid this dismal fate by electing Republicans. But we’re not out of the woods yet. But it’s definitely a good time to reduce your spending and start saving for a rainy day, and making a plan.

I’m struggling right now, because this is all happening too fast and my plan requires at least 3 years to execute… GAH! I didn’t expect this would happen so fast. I hope the House Republicans can put the brakes on the spending.