Articles tagged as

Spending

A revenue problem, or a spending problem?

Both revenues and spending have trended upward over the last 50 years, but almost always, spending has risen faster than revenues.   Much faster. We always seem to hear it’s a revenue problem – we just don’t have the revenue to support our spending (as one REPUBLICAN said, determining the Belknap County – which seems … Read more

House Leaders Comment on New Law to Allow Tax, Spending Caps

As an elected Budget Committee member in my central New Hampshire hamlet, I have often been accused of having an agenda.  To my critics, I say:

Yup, you’re right!

Certainly, as a Conservative, I do have a Right philosophy that frames my outlook when spending other peoples’ money.  My agenda is simple:

Why should Government’s income grow faster than an average family’s?

I got tired of opening up that twice yearly delivered envelope that told me "Your town is about to get a raise from your money at twice to four times the raise that YOU got (you chump)!".  Thus, when I saw this news on NH SB2 and what it meant, I went "YES!"

For Immediate Release:
July 5, 2011
Contact: 603-271-3665

House Leaders Comment on New Law to Allow Tax, Spending Caps
 
CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) today offered the following statements in response to the Governor signing Senate Bill 2, allowing local tax and spending caps.
 
House Speaker William O’Brien
 
“SB 2 gives cities and towns the tools to allow voters to rein in excessive spending.  While we are working to ensure that we are keeping our limited government and low tax environment strong at the state level, this new law lets our communities do the same.  This is a victory for keeping local property taxes low and demanding accountability from our elected officials.”
 
Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt
 
“First and foremost this shows that the voices of citizens in towns like Manchester, Laconia, Franklin, Dover and Nashua are not squelched. This is a victory for local control and the taxpayers.”

Tax Caps.  Spending Caps.  At the Local level.  This is huge.

Too often I have seen people, even in my own town, run and campaign as "Conservatives" (like Tom Pauken writes about in his book) just to turn around and vote for just about spending item going (and arguing ad absurdeum that every dollar spent, (i.e., even for his wife the Librarian’s budget), is absolutely necessary and that utter destruction is imminent without it.

While…

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Really, President Obama, are THESE costs necessary?

Concerning the National Weather Service, which President Obama praised during his press conference this week, there are these ‘expenditures’ that hardly fit the mantra of "absolutely necessary" from my perspective: A $220,000 grant to the Center for Environment and Development for the Arab Region to “educate the Arab region on climate change.” A $50,000 grant … Read more

Bar Stool Economics

Left wing tax policy and the class warfare rhetoric they use to advance it crumbles in the face of even the most simplistic analysis.  Take the left wing war on the wealthy.  They argue that the rich do not pay their fair share even though the rich pay most of the taxes.  Here in New Hampshire the Mark Fernald wing of the democrat party apes this ridiculous technique on the matter of New Hampshire property taxes, a notion upon which the social justice mavens and the Granite State "Fair Tax" Coalition are meant to agitate.  But neither claim holds water and this cross post from CNHT explains why.
 
Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100 and If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that’s what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.

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Manchester Needs a ‘Full-Time Refugee” Coordinator?

Liberals love to spend money. No doubt about it. Especially when the money they are spending taxpayer money. Despite tough economic times for the rank and file taxpayer, City Hall liberals are still crafting ways to generate new spending in an effort to expand the almighty nanny-feifdom of city government.

They have no intentions of reining in spending

From Boortz: We’ll give the nod to the tax cheat Obama chose to run the IRS – the Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.  Geithner was testifying before the House Small Business Committee – not about how he cheated on his taxes – but on his boss’s plan to raise taxes on small businesses in this country … Read more

Geithner Can’t Justify Doing That

I’m not sure which is worse. The fact that Geithner thinks we need to do this at all, or the fact that he seems to believe that what he says is in any way moral or that it will, as Mr. Geithner claims to believe–improve growth. Growth of government and taxes yes, but nothing else grows.

Maybe the House Got the Message

Perhaps the House of Representatives did get the message from last November‘s election and from polls indicating that Americans are serious about cutting deficit spending.  On Tuesday, in a bi-partisan vote (82 Democrats,  236 Republicans) the House overwhelmingly rejected President Obama’s request to unconditionally increase the debt ceiling.  Only 97 Democrats voted to continue reckless spending.  

Despite alarmist claims about not raising the debt ceiling, the Secretary of the Treasury can dispense its approximately $2 trillion revenues on a priority basis.  Our country need not default on our debt or fail to pay the military, seniors, the poor, or other critical obligations UNLESS OBAMA’s administration CHOOSES NOT TO MAKE THOSE PAYMENTS. 

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Data Point – what public sector workers expect from taxpayers

I think that this fits the definition of unsustainable: Currently, Illinois is last in the nation in funding its retirement system, setting aside only 38.3 cents (see p. 23, table 4) for every dollar in pension benefits it promises its retirees. (Many experts recommend states set aside 80 percent of their retirement costs, at a … Read more

Quick Thought: All your money is ours

From a policy speech at the BipartisanPolicy.org, #2 Democrat guy, Steny Hoyer keeps making the same mistake that many on the Left keep repeating: “America is not broke,” Hoyer said at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C.. “America has extraordinary resources and we can use those resources, both intellectual and financial, to get us … Read more

A Funding “Solution” For Democrats Concerned about Budget Cuts

Remember all that stuff we didn’t have to have in the New Hampshire budget before 2006 when the democrats started piling it up into what has become our Billion dollar budget deficit? I don’t either. I’m not even sure what they spent it on which is why I am convinced I can do without it. All this caterwauling is clearly just cover for keeping the bloated bureaucracy alive so they can milk it for union campaign contributions.

“Jobs at a decent wage”? Well, it’s a govt job – Obama would approve

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified."            – President Barack Obama, Inauguration, 1/20/09  When I came across this, I just shook my … Read more

Democrat Scapegoats

Following Democrat traditions, President Obama claims the rich and corporations don‘t pay enough taxes.  However, the rich and corporations  pay EXACTLY the taxes that Democrats desire.  If the rich and corporations were under-taxed, Democrats would have raised their taxes during President Obama‘s first two years when no Republican support was needed (like Democrats passed Obamacare).  But, Democrats didn’t increase taxes.  Democrats didn’t even consider taxes on the rich or corporations until after last Fall’s election.        

Claims that the rich and corporations are under-taxed are intended to divert attention from Democrat excessive spending and unconscionable deficits.  Most Americans know that continuing trillion dollar deficits lead inevitably to financial disaster, excessive inflation, a decline in our standard of living, and/or poverty for future generations of Americans. 

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Clarity and Collective Bargaining?

UnionLabelClosed.jpg

Mr. Sapienza asks in the Union Leader, “Do legislators even know what state workers do?”
Perhaps some don’t. I know for a fact that some do…many have been state workers themselves. With so many flawed or misquided assumptions, the demagoguery lives on. 

Edward Sapienza of Manchester, through the Union Leader opposite editorial pages seeks to “offer some clarity and ask our state representatives and state senators, specifically what conservative values do [sic] you bring to the table?” Mr. Sapienza asserts this legislature is taking from the rank and file working class. “Getting state and county spending under control is, “taking from the working class?” pointing to the measure to remove collective bargaining.

Mr. Sapienza is a correctional officer at the Hillsborough County Jail.  As a Hillsborough County taxpayer, I am grateful and thankful for his service because being a correctional officer is a tough job. The care, custody, and control of our societal miscreants is a significant task, requiring patience, an even temperament and intelligence. Correctional Officers must follow a clearly defined set of rules, procedures and standards in dealing with our county prisoners and detainees, who, on the other hand, adhere to no such rules or standards, other than those imposed by the facility that keeps them. Few truly know what a day in the life of a correctional officer is truly like and often times, the only public mention of the men and women who do this job is when we see acts of wrong-doing by them in newspapers. It’s unfair.

Moreover, very few understand that in Mr. Sapienza’s workplace; even the most seemingly innocuous question or request by an inmate or detainee can tax a Correctional Officer. A Correctional Officer must be able to think quickly, evaluate, and understand that his response may have an unintended consequence. The CO must ask, “Did the inmate or detainee already ask another staff member? Did that staff member say, ‘no'”? If I say, ‘yes’, am I causing an inconsistency with my other staff members, enabling an inmate manipulation?” Being a correctional officer is a challenging career and is not a job for stupid people.

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Budget Graph

I know, it must be “graph day.” What can I tell you. Here’s another one from the Wall Street Journal via Freedom Works, based on CBO data. Note that Obama’s budget relies on taking money out of the economy in the form of tax increases. Those are your future jobs and raises unless you’d like to the Welfare life of equal squalor under socialst rule–where everyone is equal (equally miserable).

Great Plan Dick

Dick Durbin, Richard, Rick, Ricky, Dicky, Dickard, The Dickster Durbin is suggesting an intervention for his state of Illinois. Apparently the tax and spender state implemented an internet sales tax on retailers. They were thinking that it might help them with their budget problem; I guess they left Terie “Billion Dollar Deficit” Norelli in charge of spending over there as well.

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