Come election time we hear politicians say they plan to balance governmental budgets by getting rid of waste, fraud, and abuse. That comment always seems like a dodge to allow the candidate to avoid talking about tough budget choices — and then you run across a story like this. It turns out that a recent [...]
Posts Tagged ‘budgets’
“Waste, Fraud, And Abuse” And The New Jersey Turnpike
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, budgets, Government spending, Legislators, New Jersey, New Jersey Turnpike, Politics, taxes, Taxpayers on October 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
No To More State Government Bailouts! (Exhibit B)
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Budget Deficit, budgets, Illinois, Illinois Budget Problems, Politics, recession, Rod Blagojevich on July 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
For those of us who are opposed any more federal government bailouts of state and local governments, California is Exhibit A. As today’s story in the New York Times demonstrates, however, if California is Exhibit A, Illinois is Exhibit B. The article chronicles how Illinois is unable to pay its bills even for essential services, [...]
Pruning Spending In The Garden State
Posted in America, Politics, tagged budget deficits, budgets, Chris Christie, New Jersey on May 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s an interesting report from New Jersey, where a newly elected governor is trying to tackle some of the nation’s worst state budget problems. The governor, Republican Chris Christie, has concluded that new taxes are not the answer — and no wonder, because the article reports that taxes in New Jersey are the highest in [...]
Motivated Consumers And Health Care Cost Containment
Posted in Healthcare Reform, The Economy, tagged budgets, economy, Health Care Reform, Health Savings Accounts, Healthcare Reform on March 3, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Virtually every American, at some point in their lives, has had to cut back and adjust their spending habits. It may have been when they were saving for a honeymoon or a special gift for a loved one, or it may have been when they scrimped to put a child through college. Sometimes the decision [...]
Making Hard Budget Choices: A No Doubt Boring Look At NHTSA
Posted in America, Politics, tagged 2010 Federal Budget, America, Budget Deficit, budgets, Federal Debt, Federal Government, Making Hard Budget Choices, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, Politics on February 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The President recently released his budget proposal for 2010. It is a complex, difficult proposal to grasp, contemplating trillions of dollars in spending and trillion-dollar deficits extending, unbroken, into the foreseeable future. One of the problems for American taxpayers is that the federal government is so large, so sprawling, and so unwieldy that it is [...]
It Takes Crust
Posted in Politics, The Economy, tagged budgets, California, California budget deficit, economy, Politics, recession, Tax Withholding, taxes on November 5, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Whenever someone would do or say something that was outlandish and grossly overreaching, my grandmother would say: “That takes crust.” I think she would have used that phrase to characterize the latest scheme developed by California lawmakers to try to close a huge budget shortfall. They have announced that they will increase, by 10 percent, [...]
Not-So-Golden (II)
Posted in America, Politics, tagged budgets, California, Politics on August 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It’s actually kind of sad when a Californian writes that Californians need to get over themselves.
Fly Coach, Instead
Posted in Politics, Travel, tagged budgets, Congress, corruption, global warming, Politics, Travel on August 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I realize that $550 million is but a drop in the seemingly bottomless bucket that is the federal budget, but I am still irked at Members of Congress for spending that sum to buy new jets to ferry them around on their boondoggle “fact finding” trips. At a time of belt-tightening by average Americans, is [...]
The Step-Down Phenomenon: Foresaking Vanity
Posted in America, The Economy, tagged America, budgets, cars, Congress, economy, modern culture, Ohio, The Step-Down Phenomenon, vanity license plates on July 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Some months ago I heard a report on NPR that described what I have come to call the “step-down phenomenon.” The phenomenon addresses what people do when times get tough, family budgets become leaner, and belts are tightened. In effect, people “step down” from more expensive items to less expensive items, rather than cutting out [...]
Haste Makes Waste
Posted in Healthcare Reform, Politics, The Economy, tagged Budget Deficit, budgets, Congress, Health care, Health Care Reform, stimulus on July 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Congressional Budget Office analysis of the massive cost of the health care proposals that are being considered by Congress deals a crushing blow to one of the most cited selling points for health care reform: that it ultimately will save the taxpayers money. Adding hundreds of billions of dollars of additional health care spending [...]
Higher Revenue
Posted in Politics, The Economy, tagged Budget Deficit, budgets, California, Gambling, Legalized Marijuana, Ohio on July 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The California Board of Equalization, which is charged with administrative authority over the State’s taxes, estimated that a legislative proposal to legalize the growth, sale, and consumption of marijuana as a means of bridging California’s budget gap would raise nearly $1.4 billion per year. Such a sum would not, of course, cover the entire California [...]
Elevator Operators And Zoo Animals
Posted in Politics, tagged Animals, budgets, Politics, Zoos on July 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Here’s an appalling variation on the approach to budget cutting discussed in the post The Elevator Operator At The Washington Monument: New England zoo officials, when confronted with the prospect of budget cuts, raised the prospect of euthanizing zoo animals! To his credit, the Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, called out the zoo officials for [...]
$1,000,000,000,000
Posted in Politics, The Economy, tagged Budget Deficit, budgets, economy, Politics on July 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Congressional Budget Office says that the budget deficit for 2009 — through only the first six months of the year — has surpassed $1 trillion. That’s a lot of zeros for only six months. How big is a trillion? The NASA website says that one trillion seconds equals 31,546 years. The rate at which [...]
Not San Frantic
Posted in Politics, The Economy, Travel, tagged budgets, California, economy, ferry building, IOUs, San Francisco, sea lions at pier 39 on July 8, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I just got back to Columbus from a work trip to San Francisco. I like San Francisco very much. The summer weather is great, cool and crisp. It is a lovely city, filled with picturesque vistas, and it has some fantastic restaurants. One afternoon we had the opportunity to stroll along the Embarcardero, from the [...]
California, Dreaming
Posted in Politics, The Economy, tagged budgets, California, economy, taxes on June 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Legislative activity in California is hot and heavy as the state tries to close what is now a $24 billion budget gap. This story reports on some of the choices that have been presented and are being debated. Should the gap be closed purely with spending reductions, or should fees and additional taxes be imposed [...]
