Greeeaaat: Federal Government on Track to Nearly Double Its Annual Borrowing This Year
It’s time to talk once again about the giant looming problem that we all know is there and that we try to forget about — but which we make worse every year. That’s right: the debt. Treasury says we’re about to add another heaping chunk to the debt, and CBO says you can thank the recently passed tax bill:
It was another crazy news week, so it’s understandable if you missed a small but important announcement from the Treasury Department: The federal government is on track to borrow nearly $1 trillion this fiscal year — Trump’s first full year in charge of the budget.
That’s almost double what the government borrowed in fiscal year 2017.
Here are the exact figures: The U.S. Treasury expects to borrow $955 billion this fiscal year, according to a documents released Wednesday. It’s the highest amount of borrowing in six years, and a big jump from the $519 billion the federal government borrowed last year.
Treasury mainly attributed the increase to the “fiscal outlook.” The Congressional Budget Office was more blunt. In a report this week, the CBO said tax receipts are going to be lower because of the new tax law.
In December, in a lengthy and detailed post opposing the tax bill, I warned you this was coming. I’ll quote myself at length, which I grant myself permission to do:
For years, I have warned about the coming crash of the government debt bubble. You can’t go on borrowing like your drunk uncle Joe forever without the ultimate result being inflation and lots of it. And what’s the main thing that will jump-start the crash? Interest rates rising above their unnaturally depressed level. Bad news! That has already started to happen.
And as interest rates rise, and spending continues out of control, an ever-increasing chunk of the national budget will be devoted to interest payments. This will squeeze out other priorities and choke the private sector. Ultimately, our children are going to be paying for all this, one way or another — either in the form of higher taxes, or inflation. Given the cowardice of government officials, it’s going to be inflation. And it’s going to be bad.
And while our main problem is spending, and not taxes, this bill makes the problem worse.
. . . .
You can’t count on tax cuts to pay for themselves. These tax cuts are overwhelmingly likely to add to the deficit and debt. At a time when the national debt just passed $20 trillion, this is incredibly irresponsible. Moreover, those Senators who raised concerns about the debt were steamrolled, while others who usually worry about the debt said not a word. So the bill sends a signal that the real problem — out of control spending — will never be addressed. And that has potentially tragic consequences for our country.
My post explained in detail why the tax cuts cannot be relied on to “pay for themselves.” I took the reader in detail through the argument, with quotes from Arthur Laffer disciples and other free marketeers, but the summary is that nobody has ever claimed that it is inevitable that revenues increase by the same amount that tax cuts decrease them, and it usually doesn’t happen that way.
So, while partisans will talk about the wonderful growth we will experience under the recently passed tax law — and we will experience some — we are going to see more debt. We knew that. The Treasury Department and CBO statements just confirm what we already knew.
Now that it’s Republicans increasing our debt, partisans don’t care. (This will change again under President Kamala Harris. I know, the phrase makes me shiver too, but pendulums tend to swing both ways.) But members of both parties have children, and it’s the children who are going to pay.
Hooray for our “conservative” Republican party!!!
[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]
The cbo which underscored robertscare, yet overestimated its reach by 160%
narciso (364166) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:15 amIn hot pursuit of “bad haircut”, or the Amtrak fatwa is real: http://www.yahoo.com/news/dozens-injured-south-carolina-train-slideshow-wp-140312182.html
urbanleftbehind (aa10ca) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:20 amThanks Patterico. The Bond yields and rising interest rates have been percolating and Wall Street is in peril. It’s been it’s usual insane self getting some final shekels as death of it’s current incarnation proceeds. The next crash will be the accumulation of continued abuse added onto the rickety remnants not resolved with the last crash. IOWs..Gird guy loins..
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:23 amComplaining about it (twice now) without offering a solution is just being cranky.
What specifically do you propose? Rolling back the tax reform changes will make about a 0.00001% difference. I favor growing out of it because, frankly, there is no politically viable solution. So, what is your politically viable fix?
random viking (6a54c2) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:30 amSpending needs to be severely reduced, SS and Medicare need systemic changes. In addition, federal, state, county, city governments also need to come to grips with unfunded pension liabilities and make fundamental changes.
I also think CBO estimates are often next to useless.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:30 amWait, so you’re telling me we can’t have low taxes, generous entitlement programs, a powerful military coupled with a robust foreign policy, and an active government bureaucracy all at the same time? In fact, we can’t even have more than one of those things at any given time?
JVW (42615e) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:34 amIf the govt could take all our money and our savings and give us,a stipend to buy staples, that’s ghillarduccis play)
narciso (511c19) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:36 amTalking about things is being cranky? How else do we decide on policies unless we talk about them? Solutions don’t matter unless people first agree there is a problem.
DRJ (15874d) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:37 amMany think it was our salvation from becoming 2nd World.
Estimates are that underground activity last year totaled as much as $2 trillion, according to a study by Edgar Feige, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/id/100668336
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:37 amSince 2009, the artificial QEs, cheap money, allowing unqualified people to purchase homes and autos through subprime lending, etc., all have contributed to current straights. It’s like lessons can never be learned.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:39 amIn fact, we can’t even have more than one of those things at any given time?
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:40 amExpand your grey area and take a look at Pentagon Waste. Discretionary spending might take a back seat.
Talking about things is being cranky?
Gimme a workable solution. Then let’s talk about it. Otherwise, sorry, it’s like the people at work who I try to avoid.
random viking (6a54c2) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:42 amhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.ea1c5a12fa2d
https://www.google.com/search?q=pentagon+waste&oq=pentagon+waste&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.6698j0j4&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Much more
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:44 amhttps://newrepublic.com/article/79066/waste-defense-spending-america-pentagon
Moar..
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:45 amhttps://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/20/pentagon-never-audited-astonishing-military-spending
Still moar..
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:46 amLaffer on tax cuts… https://www.creators.com/read/stephen-moore/12/17/trump-tax-cut-an-ode-to-the-laffer-curve
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:52 amUse your words kernel. Do you comprehend what you read?
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:55 amHistory clearly shows that cutting taxes does not increase revenue. The Laffer curve is a political idea used to justify tax cuts for the rich. It is not based on sound economics.
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 11:00 amLaffer Curve was Reagan’s Memo.
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 11:02 amThey are attributing the increase to the tax cut, therein lies the problem.
narciso (511c19) — 2/4/2018 @ 11:02 amIf the tax rate were 90%, would that increase revenue? How about after rolling that back to 30%? Think hard.
random viking (6a54c2) — 2/4/2018 @ 11:05 amAs most of us said previously, you still have to lower spending and cut down on vote-buying wealth transference.
Giving people back more of their own money is not the problem
harkin (8256c3) — 2/4/2018 @ 11:34 amIt’s absolutely a problem if you do one without the other.
A point I’ve made before is that Democrats are often tarred as “Tax and Spend.” I assert that this is better than the Republican alternative: “Borrow and Spend.”
Davethulhu (99cc74) — 2/4/2018 @ 11:38 amMeanwhile in the lefty bubble:
College Students Condemn Quotes From SOTU Speech…….
“Campus Reform’s Cabot Phillips spoke to students outside John Jay College in New York City, who unanimously criticized the…..quotes, describing them as “warmongering,” “aggressive,” and “immature.”
……Until They’re Told It’s Obama Speaking
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/02/03/students-hate-quotes-from-trumps-state-of-the-union-until-realizing-they-are-obamas/
harkin (8256c3) — 2/4/2018 @ 11:41 amA point I’ve made before is that Democrats are often tarred as “Tax and Spend.” I assert that this is better than the Republican alternative: “Borrow and Spend.”
Ok, the Dems are the party of “Tax, Borrow and Spend”, Republicans just “Borrow and Spend.”
The bulk of the debt is due to programs, agencies, entitlements on auto-pilot, virtually all started by the Dems. Trump couldn’t make a dent in those if he tried. Military spending has been virtually a constant % of federal outlays for many decades, ~20%, so that isn’t the problem.
random viking (6a54c2) — 2/4/2018 @ 11:51 amThe GOP used to be the Party that tried to stop or undo Democratic excesses. Who will do that now?
DRJ (15874d) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:00 pmIt’s clear that no one will.
DRJ (15874d) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:00 pm25… yes! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Democrats weren’t all in on promoting dependence on government as a means of obtaining and holding on to power?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:02 pmUse your words kernel. Do you comprehend what you read?
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 10:55 am
If you’re going to think inside the box you should punch out some air holes.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:02 pm“Mayor Michael Tubbs calls his city “ground zero” for issues like wage stagnation, rising housing prices and loss of middle-class jobs that affect the nation.
The Central Valley city went bankrupt in 2012, and for decades it has been trying to diversify its agriculture-based economy.
“I feel that as mayor it’s my responsibility to do all I could to begin figuring out what’s the best way to make sure that folks in our community have a real economic floor,” Tubbs said.
http://mobile.wnd.com/2018/02/u-s-city-to-experiment-with-universal-basic-income/#8X8bXEG0yf4ATqUo.99
This ought to go well……
harkin (8256c3) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:03 pmIt’s reported that may not happen.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/us/politics/federal-reserve-rates.html
Also:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/business/economy/janet-yellen-fed.html
Both arrticles say theer may be another increase in March.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:05 pm“A point I’ve made before is that Democrats are often tarred as “Tax and Spend.” I assert that this is better than the Republican alternative: “Borrow and Spend.”
You don’t give the Democrats enough credit; besides Tax and Spend they also advocate:
Borrow and Spend
Print More Money and Spend
Take it from a productive citizen, give it to a non-productive citizen (or non-citizen) and they Spend it.
harkin (8256c3) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:06 pmThe GOP used to be the Party that tried to stop or undo Democratic excesses. Who will do that now?
Yeah, that’s tough when you not only have to stop the Dems but also easily triggered members of your own party. You know who you are.
random viking (6a54c2) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:12 pmThe solution is easy. The political will is lacking.
crazy (d99a88) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:14 pmI’m not saying defense spending is the first place we should look to cut the budget, but this is a completely illogical argument. If the Democrats double welfare spending, why should military spending also double?
If the premise of your statement is true, military spending should be a rapidly-shrinking percentage of federal outlays.
Anyway, relax. Donald Trump promised to pay off the national debt completely in eight years.
Only seven years to go!
Here is our obese, semi-literate, treasonous stable genius holding forth on how the stock market rally last fall had already reduced the debt by $5.2T, while FoxNews shill Sean Hannity nods his head:
Dave (445e97) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:17 pmI’m not saying defense spending is the first place we should look to cut the budget
What’s with the equivocation?
Is this the 3rd rail for any discussion..?
Anyway, since I addressed Waste! and not cuts to budget the point will be list.
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:32 pmLost.
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:32 pmand yet cowardpig McCain wants to double down on slopping the corrupt trashy-assed pentagon piggies
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:35 pmA staggering report by the Defense Department’s Inspector General last summer found the Army made $2.8 trillion worth of wrongful adjustments to accounting entries in one quarter alone in 2015, and $6.5 trillion for the year. The Army lacked receipts and invoices to support those numbers or simply made them up.
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:37 pmhttps://www.google.com/amp/amp.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/7/us-military-wasting-money/
The U.S. Treasury expects to borrow $955 billion this fiscal year, according to a documents released Wednesday. It’s the highest amount of borrowing in six years, and a big jump from the $519 billion the federal government borrowed last year.
Reaganomics.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:38 pmPentagon’s $44 billion Defense Logistics Agency notes that it spent over $7 billion on unneeded equipment. Meanwhile, Congress is doing its part by inserting its own pet projects into the budget, whether or not they are top priorities in terms of defense needs. The most notable example is the F-35 combat aircraft, which at $1.4 trillion over its lifetime is the most expensive weapons project ever undertaken by the Pentagon. Despite the fact that the plane is far from ready for prime time, Congress stuffed 11 additional F-35s into the defense bill that was signed by the president last month.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/articles/2016-02-03/the-pentagon-could-reach-a-historic-level-of-wasteful-spending%3fcontext=amp
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:41 pmDefense spending should rise with the growth of the country. I don’t expect the same with programs, agencies and entitlements. The country wasn’t conceived as a Leviathan of clerics perpetuating itself.
random viking (6a54c2) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:45 pmyes yes the incompetent tranny-trash military spends a fortune on silly crap and guess what
it’s still sitting in a puddle of its own piss staring in fear at North Korea
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:46 pmAnd #42 dodges the tackle and sprints to his own endzone!!!.
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:48 pmI can’t tell if GGB is Low Key or Loki.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:53 pmGGB’s Dark Passenger just tried to escape at the last stop light.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:54 pmIf anyone bothers to check on what actually happens rather than rely on sources such as the Congressional Budget Office when taxes are either cut or increased, they will find that, not only here but in every other country, tax cuts result in increased tax revenues while tax increases result in decreased tax revenues. Since this is what actually happens, why do so many people believe the opposite?
Michael Keohane (947544) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:55 pmyou can thank the recently passed tax bill
i wonder what harvardtrash ted and his grimacing sicky sacky would’ve done different if they’d become presidentfirstlady
would they have decided not to do tax cuts???
no, harvardtrash ted voted for tax cuts!
hrm I wonder what his reasoning behind that was
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/4/2018 @ 12:59 pm“The United States spends more on their defense budget than China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Kingdom, India, France, and Japan combined… On the 14th of July, H.R. 2810 the National Defense Authorization Act 2018 was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives 344 – 8, with 8 not voting. 60% of Democrats voted for this bill, which represented an 18% increase in defense spending. The Congress increased the budget to total $696 billion dollars”.
And it can be beaten by 20 guys w/ $500,000 stealing a few airplanes or a couple of nerdy kids with $5 thumb drives bought at an Office Depot.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:00 pmAnd it can be beaten by 20 guys w/ $500,000 stealing a few airplanes or a couple of nerdy kids with $5 thumb drives bought at an Office Depot.
lol they suck so hard
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:01 pm@19. Laffer Curve was Reagan’s Memo.
LOL Imagine ‘conservatives’ whining about Reaganomix Redux. Blasphemy!!! Uncle Sam on a credit card is bad??? Woodshed time!
“It’s a good thing.” – Martha Stewart
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:12 pmWhat do you call a $14 billion aircraft carrier that can be sunk by a few $1.5 million Exocet missiles?
Reaganomics.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:21 pm@47
We should cut taxes to zero, revenues would go through the roof!
Davethulhu (99cc74) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:30 pm@53 – yes, no income, payroll, or corporate tax. 20% VAT which can be deducted against revenue by the seller to ensure compliance. Watch how loud the clamor would be to control spending. 20% is about what govt spends today.
Lenny (5ea732) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:39 pmWhat do you call a $14 billion aircraft carrier that can be sunk by a few $1.5 million Exocet missiles?
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:21 pm
USS Obama. And I think what you were looking for is how many Francs does it take to get to the center of a $4 billion aircraft carrier?
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:44 pm$4 billion. $14 billion. Whatever it takes.
Mr Mom
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:45 pm“During Reagan’s presidency, the national debt grew from $997 billion in FY1981 to $2.85 trillion in FY1989.This led to the U.S. moving from the world’s largest international creditor to the world’s largest debtor nation.”
The world of today is Reagan Wreckage; now worship him.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:47 pmLOL Imagine ‘conservatives’ whining about Reaganomix Redux. Blasphemy!!! Uncle Sam on a credit card is bad??? Woodshed time!
“It’s a good thing.” – Martha Stewart
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:12 pm
Was there a George Baily in Jackson’s day trying to keep the bank open?
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:50 pmNeither a borrower or a creditor be Mr DC.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:51 pm@58. It was a S&L— Reaganomics wrecked them, too; gave John ‘Keating Five’ McCain his first real headache.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:52 pm@59. Shakespeare was a Briton; Reagan, Irish. ‘Nuff said.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:54 pmRegardless of what president is in office we still have the Federal Reserve that, many have pointed out, is as Federal as Federal Express. Was not a central bank advertised as to eliminate these boom bust cycles? Some folks might suspect they create them.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:57 pm‘Keating Five’ McCain his first real headache.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:52 pm
I guess they couldn’t make McCain talk.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:58 pm@59. Shakespeare was a Briton; Reagan, Irish. ‘Nuff said.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:54 pm
Are we playing one degree of Francis Bacon?
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:02 pm“The world of today is Reagan Wreckage; now worship him.”
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:47 pm
Step up and own what your ideology has wrought. Be a man, you worm.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:03 pm10 to 20 trillion dollars, is what chop liver,
narciso (d1f714) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:09 pm@64. Are we playing one degree of Francis Bacon?
On an Anglo-Irish pub crawl, centigrade, of course.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:12 pmStep up and own what your ideology has wrought. Be a man, you worm.
Reaganomics.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:18 pm
Rev.Hoagie (6bbda7) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:25 pmThat’s what communists call a free market economy.
@69. They do in Communist China, currently propping up and financing Reaganomics Redux.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:31 pmfortunately greasy little Marco’s teaming up with that filthy stripper chick on some great ideas to reduce the deficit
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:33 pmYou got me sidetracked Mr DCSCA, but I’m glad you did. I’m pretty sure it was you who referenced quicksilver the other day.
Sir Francis Bacon invented a way to preserve documents with mercury. The Oak Island guys were getting stuff from borehole H8 suggesting bound books were down there. Parchment, wood, ink and dye consistent with manuscripts. They think some original “Shakespeare” manuscripts may be down there. Whatever.
A Rouchefoucauld family has something to do with all this. They took their name from the rock they built their castle on in France.
It’s kind of interesting how many rich families have names that start with “R”. Roosevelt, Rockefeller, Rothschild and Rouchefoucauld. I’m sure there are a few missing Pages.
a) Samuel de Champlain came over from France with Pierre Dugua de Mons, who was the founder of the first French Colony in Nova Scotia.
b) The Dugua family tree — found by Alex Lagina, Peter Fornetti, Charles Barkhouse and Doug Crowell at Center of Geographic Sciences in Lawrencetown — showed that François de La Rochefoucauld married into the Dugua family.
c) La Rochefoucauld has a lineage that stretches back to the Lusignan family, who were among the ruling class in the Holy City of Jerusalem during the crusades, and whose blood line also extended to George Washington, Winston Churchill and Prince Charles of England.
d) The name Rochefoucauld appeared on a hand-drawn map shown to the Oak Island team last season by Zena Halpern.
e) Doug Crowell said all these various facts pointed at there being a “pathway” through the family from the Holy Land to Oak Island.
The question is, did Champlain not include Mahone Bay when he created his maps because he was under the direction of Pierre Dugua and the Rochefoucauld family, in an effort to protect something of great value hidden there?
Tax avoidance no doubt. Why else would you hand dig a hole at least 150′ deep in 1700 something?
The Curse of Oak Island
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:33 pm“This section of Discover The Networks focuses on the strategies and tactics employed by the left in pursuit of its political and social objectives. A few examples are briefly outlined below.
A) Particularly noteworthy is the Cloward-Piven Strategy, which was first proposed in a 1966 article by Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and his wife Frances Fox Piven. This strategy seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.
In their article, Cloward and Piven focused specifically on the American welfare system, charging that by providing a social safety net, the government was dousing the fires of rebellion. The authors advised the poor to avoid the temptation of being placated by government hand-outs, and to work, instead, toward the goal of sabotaging and destroying the welfare system entirely. Toward that end, Cloward and Piven proposed a “massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls.” The authors calculated that by persuading even a small fraction of potential welfare recipients to demand their full entitlements, they could bankrupt the system. The result, they predicted, would be “a profound financial and political crisis” that would unleash “powerful forces … for major economic reform at the national level.”
The Cloward-Piven strategy was an example of what are commonly called Trojan Horse movements — initiatives whose outward purpose is to provide material help to the downtrodden, but whose real objective is to draft poor people into service as revolutionary foot soldiers.
B) A legendary figure in the playbook of leftist tactics is the late Saul Alinsky, a Communist/Marxist fellow-traveler who identified a set of very specific rules that ordinary citizens could follow as a means of gaining public power. “[W]e are concerned,” Alinsky said, “with how to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people … We are talking about a mass power organization which will change the world … This means revolution.”
But Alinsky’s brand of revolution was not characterized by dramatic, sweeping, overnight transformations of social institutions. As Richard Poe puts it, “Alinsky viewed revolution as a slow, patient process. The trick was to penetrate existing institutions such as churches, unions and political parties.” Alinsky advised organizers and their disciples to quietly, subtly gain influence within the decision-making ranks of these institutions, and to introduce changes from those platforms.
C) In his book The Vision of the Anointed, sociologist Thomas Sowell identifies a four-stage strategy that the left has used repeatedly in order to promote its agendas:
Stage 1, The “Crisis”: Some situation exists, whose negative aspects the anointed [leftists] propose to eliminate. Such a situation is routinely characterized as a “crisis” … even though evidence is seldom asked or given to show how the situation at hand is either uniquely bad or threatening to get worse. Sometimes the situation described as a “crisis” has in fact already been getting better for years.
Stage 2, The “Solution”: Policies to end the “crisis” are advocated by the anointed, who say that these policies will lead to beneficial result A. Critics say that these policies will lead to detrimental result Z. The anointed dismiss these latter claims as absurd and “simplistic,” if not dishonest.
Stage 3, The Results: The policies are instituted and lead to detrimental result Z.
Stage 4, The Response: Those who attribute detrimental result Z to the policies instituted are dismissed as “simplistic” for ignoring the “complexities” involved, as “many factors” went into determining the outcome. The burden of proof is on the critics to demonstrate to a certainty that these policies alone were the only possible cause of the worsening that occurred. No burden of proof whatever is put on those who had so confidently predicted improvement. Indeed it is often asserted that things would have been even worse, were it not for the wonderful programs that mitigated the inevitable damage from other factors.”
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=524
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:35 pmThe Left’s goal is the destruction of the United States of America
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:37 pmThe debt doubled under Obama so if you want to blame someone, blame Trump.
AZ Bob (f60c80) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:39 pm8
Talking about things is being cranky? How else do we decide on policies unless we talk about them? Solutions don’t matter unless people first agree there is a problem.
It’s like global warming. There is no current problem. There might or might not be a problem in the future. If there is going to be a problem in the future it might or might not be easier to prevent it than to fix it when it arises. However as a practical matter people are reluctant to sacrifice now for nebulous future gains.
James B. Shearer (c4f4d7) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:43 pmNot a lot of people know this but Frances Fox Piven was really into HAM Radio.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:48 pmObama started in a recession. What’s Trump’s excuse?
Davethulhu (99cc74) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:49 pmOh Hammytea, Hammytea.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnns-brian-stelter-hannity-deserves-credit-for-memo-release
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:50 pmObama started the Chicago Fire
-Mrs. O’Learys Cow-
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 2/4/2018 @ 2:52 pmI’ve said that I’m more fiscally conservative for
Tillman (a95660) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:01 pmyearsdecades now. I’m glad you’re ringing the alarm bell Patterico. We can’t live on a credit card without paying for it sooner or later. In part, we’re paying for it now anyway. It’s just not responsible.Is this gonna be a football game or some rap crap?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:08 pmshorter version of #73:
“Look, a squirrel!”
Dave (445e97) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:16 pm@71. Clearly Ivanka helped him with the big words writing that SOTU speech, Mr. Feet. How else could that get slipped in.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:24 pmThis the silliest thing I’ve read in a long time.
Well, until I read this, anyway.
Well over half of the money the government spends is Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment, or Veterans benefits to individuals.
So why would you not expect that to grow with the size of the country?
Dave (445e97) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:33 pm71/happy, good, better that then something else they both are soft on.
urbanleftbehind (aa10ca) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:37 pmHere are the exact figures: The U.S. Treasury expects to borrow $955 billion this fiscal year, according to a documents released Wednesday. It’s the highest amount of borrowing in six years, and a big jump from the $519 billion the federal government borrowed last year.
I am not sure where these numbers are coming from. According to this CBO document (dated 1/2/2018) the tax bill is estimated to increase the fiscal 2018 deficit from $563 billion to $699 billion.
James B. Shearer (c4f4d7) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:37 pmFrances Fox Piven would radio Ethel Rosenberg and be like, “Hey Ethel, I was just talking about you with Richard. Are your ears burning?”
And they’d laugh.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:38 pmi imagine some of the borrowing is to refinance existing debt, but wapo propaganda sluts rarely do that kind of serious reporting Mr. Shearer
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:40 pmI try to learn something every day. For instance, Johann Sebastian Bach and Good Guy Ben were both good at improvising fugues but Bach didn’t think kids who believe in limited government were his enemy. I checked on that twice.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:41 pmevery other day is more than ample i think
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:43 pmI hope I’m not teaching Mr Beldar to suck eggs but here’s one for him:
The owner of Trump Tower, Trump Golf Links, and The Donald J. Trump Signature Collection can’t claim this one as his own: iTrump.
That’s because the trademark resides with a 40-year-old-engineer and amateur musician who created an iPhone app designed to teach people how to play the trumpet. This month, Tom Scharfeld prevailed in his grueling six-year legal fight against Donald Trump. And Scharfeld’s triumph is even more impressive because he succeeded without a lawyer.
Bloomberg
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:45 pmI don’t really blame Trump, mind you. GGB’s iCokespoon landed him in some legal difficulties.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:48 pmfor example
the last thing I learned was yesterday and that’s how to make a simple carb-free dry cockit martini
all you do is you get some heavy whipping cream and throw it in a blender with some raw cocoa
then you blend it up!
so what happens is the cream immediately thickens to a sort of silky frosting-like texture – it’s really pretty
then you pour in vodka and blend – i did this a few times until I got the consistency i wanted
so bam you have a treat where you’re getting your healthy cocoa but no carbs to speak of (2/3 of cocoa carbs are fiber carbs)
this martini is good for America that’s for sure
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:51 pmI remember my ex FIL went from the Navy to the full time NG and did a bunch of stuff like buying back his pension. I think his strategy was to ruin his retirement and from afar it looks like he succeeded.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:53 pmIf you like gin why don’t you just jump in a juniper bush and roll around? At least you won’t have a sh*tty aftertaste in your mouth.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:55 pmi like gin very much and there’s a lot of domestic small batchers to try these days
this is good cause of President Trump likes it when we buy American, and I love doing stuff that makes him happy
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:58 pm@72. Haven’t we seen this show before– something about Geraldo and a vault…
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:59 pmYou had one job:
narciso (d1f714) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:59 pmhttps://lawandcrime.com/legal-analysis/adam-schiff-apparently-released-classified-information-in-attempt-to-rebut-nunes-memo/
82.Is this gonna be a football game or some rap crap?
=Haiku!= Gesundheit!
The Colonelle be waitin’ for the Afro-Sheen spot.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 4:11 pmA grieving mother unwittingly makes a case for the 2nd Amendment:
“It’s been a difficult week for parents Temia Hairston and Michael Grace Sr. Their son, Michael Grace Jr., was shot and killed during an attempted armed robbery early Sunday morning.
Police said Grace Jr. and two other people tried to rob a Pizza Hut in the 3200 block of Freedom Drive. During the incident, an employee fired his own handgun and killed Grace Jr.
Hairston said she learned of her son’s death on social media, and only got confirmation from police after contacting them first. The grieving mother said she has been left with dozens of questions about the situation that have thus far gone unanswered.
“If there was to be a death, it was not the place of the employee at Pizza Hut. That is the place of law enforcement,” said Hairston.”
You really have to wonder how the son could have been so stupid.
harkin (8256c3) — 2/4/2018 @ 6:46 pmThen why won’t the government do the only logical thing and cut spending?
WarEagle82 (2b3d34) — 2/4/2018 @ 7:07 pm“If there was to be a death, it was not the place of the employee at Pizza Hut. That is the place of law enforcement,” said Hairston.”
You really have to wonder how the son could have been so stupid.
harkin (8256c3) — 2/4/2018 @ 6:46 pm
What she means is the Pizza Hut guy has zero immunity and probably got fired.
Pizza Hut cuts their pizzas with that big rocking cutter of which the name excapes [sic] me. I’d go Lt Worf on his a$$.
At a certain point your son is going to be going A-Z in the MSDS if I don’t have a gun at work.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 7:30 pm@72. Haven’t we seen this show before– something about Geraldo and a vault…
DCSCA (797bc0) — 2/4/2018 @ 3:59 pm
No man, Geraldo and a chair.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 7:33 pmPizza Hut is asking for trouble if they are saying hit the panic button if you see anyone with a gun that’s not uniformed police. They want to SWAT their customers now, apparently. Even if they are legally carrying.
North Carolina
Fall Down
Pull that mask off yo face
Spin around on the ground
Like you head shot
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 7:38 pmAnybody not like Ben Shapiro?
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 8:31 pmEDINBURG — State District Judge Rodolfo “Rudy” Delgado was arrested Friday amid an apparent FBI investigation, his attorney Al Alvarez indicated.
Dozens of FBI agents descended on the offices of Delgado’s 93rd state District Court and his home in Edinburg about 4 p.m. Friday.
Assisted by Texas Rangers and Hidalgo County Sheriff’s deputies, the agents could be seen removing plastic bins from his home near the intersection of Schunior Street and Depot Road.
It’s unclear if agents removed anything from his office at the Hidalgo County courthouse. Courthouse officials blocked access to the facility’s second floor, where Delgado’s court office is located.
The Monitor
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 8:33 pmThe RGV is Cocaine Cowboy Era Miami for Fat Ugly People.
urbanleftbehind (aa10ca) — 2/4/2018 @ 8:37 pmThe 24/7 Payday loan place just went nuts. It’s a real mystery.
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 2/4/2018 @ 9:00 pmJust default on the loans. I think the ensuing anarchy might be kind of exciting to watch. Regardless of who has been running the show, Team Suck and Team Stink have never had (and never will have) a plan to do something about it. The end to the borrowing will only happen when the lenders say No.
Allen (5f3847) — 2/4/2018 @ 11:57 pm@47
We should cut taxes to zero, revenues would go through the roof!
Davethulhu (99cc74) — 2/4/2018 @ 1:30 pm
If you know anything at all about the Laffer Curve, you’ll know that it actually posits that there are two tax rates that will result in zero revenues: 0% and 100&. I’d suggest that you start your education here, with an article by Jude Wanniski, the author of “The Way the World Works.”
https://www.nationalaffairs.com/storage/app/uploads/public/58e/1a4/c54/58e1a4c549207669125935.pdf
ColoComment (bf4457) — 2/5/2018 @ 12:27 pm1. There is some point at which revenue is maximized. If taxes are higher than that point, then increasing taxes will result in less revenue while lowering taxes will result in more revenue. Alternatively, if taxes are lower, then increasing taxes will mean more revenue while decreasing will mean less. I guess we’ll see which.
2. Regarding borrowing, what would be informative is how much of the borrowing goes to service existing debt and how much creates new debt.
dlm (a4eb00) — 2/5/2018 @ 6:51 pm2. dlm (a4eb00) — 2/5/2018 @ 6:51 pm
The deficit, minus the interest paid that year, is new debt. New debt is called the porimary deficit.
How much borrowing is needed to service old debt depends on the term and how much of it needs to be rolled over.
It’s potentially dangerous to have too much to roll over in one year – that’s what got New York City into trouble in 1974-75.
Here’s an article from 1992:
https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/research-and-data/publications/business-review/1992/brnd92aa.pdf
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 2/8/2018 @ 4:39 pmAt least Patterico can admit that Republicans don’t care about deficits. Reagan proved it, Cheney quoted it, and Paul just curb-stomped the victim while shouting, “stop resisting”.
Aside from Patterico, I don’t want to hear a single Republican whine next time around. Of course, whining is a core competency, so that will never happen. But nobody else has to do anything but point and laugh.
Coasta (51fdf0) — 2/12/2018 @ 8:49 am