Tuesday, April 12, 2011

OBAMA ON RATS, FLEAS & DISCRETIONARY FEDERAL SPENDING

I have never been to a "Tea Party" but have wanted to go just to show my support of their ideas to our government officials who are not listening.  I'm sure there are millions more just like me.  Who cannot support what they are all about?  TEA stands for "Taxed Enough Already";  IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT THOSE THAT MAKE $250,000 and over in annual pay as Obama wants to frame it.  My family doesn't fall into that category.  It is also our everyday taxes: food and clothing taxes, gas taxes, taxes on all our utility bills: water, electric, natural gas, phones; property and school taxes, taxes for driving and buying a car, homes, appliances, etc.  TAXES, TAXES, TAXES - they have reached into everything we buy and use and then want to grab again in April for their coffers.  The Tea Party says Stop Increasing Spending and Start Cutting, Stop Creating New Programs and Agencies!  WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT?


President Obama stated in his week-and-a-half-late-speech to the American people on our Libyan intervention, that this evil dictator (Giddafi) called his people "rats."   Obama says race is a key component in the Tea Party; so he is calling Americans "racists."  An elder New York Democratic Senator (Chuck Shummer) was caught on-microphone when he thought he was "off" saying that he was "instructed to call the Tea Party 'extremists',"  and this weekend the same Senator said 'the Tea Party is a flea on the tale of a dog, and the tale is the Republican party and the dog is the Government'. So now Americans are being called fleas.   I think the Tea Party must be like a tick that has gotten under the skin of Obama and the Democrats!  What is so extreme about wanting to cut spending and live on the money you bring in from the American people which is too much already.  LIVE WITHIN YOUR BUDGET LIKE WE FLEAS HAVE TOO!  I say hats off to you fleas!


I have about 10% a month in discretionary spending and when I need to cut back I cut there.  In February of 2009 President Obama submitted his budget for 2010 as required by law.  (I cannot give you figures from the 2011 budget because it was never enacted by his democratic congress for some reason and is why we have had the week-to-week budget funding arguments since January of 2011.)  The 2010 U.S. Federal Budget had about 60% of what they call "mandatory spending" (Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment Compensation, Welfare, and Interest on the National Debt);  it had about 40% of what they call "discretionary spending." which was an increase of 13.1% over the 2009 federal budget. The State Department had an increase of a whopping 40.9% over 2009 (this is Hillary Clinton's Department)!  The Department of Commerce had an even bigger increase of 48.4%!!!  There was even $5 billion allocated for a new government bank: "the National Infrastructure Bank" which is proposed legislation and hasn't even been passed by Congress yet.  They even allocated 105 billion dollars on "OTHER." This amount is more than any other department except defense. Defense is explicitly mandated by the Constitution.  What power they must feel to spend us into oblivion and call Americans fleas when all the fleas want is for them to spend within their means.  Unbelievable!


Below is an outline of what the government calls "discretionary spending."  This was Obama's 2010 budget while jobs were being lost, unemployment was at record levels and Americans were screaming to stop spending:


Percentages in parenthesis show increase or decrease from the Bush Administration budget of 2009 (also WAY TOO MUCH SPENDING!)


  • Discretionary spending: $1.368 trillion (+13.1%)
    • $663.7 billion (+12.7%) – Department of Defense (including Overseas Contingency Operations)
    • $78.7 billion (−1.7%) – Department of Health and Human Services
    • $72.5 billion (+2.8%) – Department of Transportation
    • $52.5 billion (+10.3%) – Department of Veterans Affairs
    • $51.7 billion (+40.9%) – Department of State and Other International Programs
    • $47.5 billion (+18.5%) – Department of Housing and Urban Development
    • $46.7 billion (+12.8%) – Department of Education
    • $42.7 billion (+1.2%) – Department of Homeland Security
    • $26.3 billion (−0.4%) – Department of Energy
    • $26.0 billion (+8.8%) – Department of Agriculture
    • $23.9 billion (−6.3%) – Department of Justice
    • $18.7 billion (+5.1%) – National Aeronautics and Space Administration
    • $13.8 billion (+48.4%) – Department of Commerce
    • $13.3 billion (+4.7%) – Department of Labor
    • $13.3 billion (+4.7%) – Department of the Treasury
    • $12.0 billion (+6.2%) – Department of the Interior
    • $10.5 billion (+34.6%) – Environmental Protection Agency
    • $9.7 billion (+10.2%) – Social Security Administration
    • $7.0 billion (+1.4%) – National Science Foundation
    • $5.1 billion (−3.8%) – Corps of Engineers
    • $5.0 billion (+100%) – National Infrastructure Bank
    • $1.1 billion (+22.2%) – Corporation for National and Community Service
    • $0.7 billion (0.0%) – Small Business Administration
    • $0.6 billion (−14.3%) – General Services Administration
    • $19.8 billion (+3.7%) – Other Agencies
    • $105 billion – Other
Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget