Cant Keep Quiet!

About 10 years ago I braved the crowds on Black Friday.  It was a horrible experience.  The crowds are enormorus and I quickly got tired of being pushed and shoved while I shopped.

I was frazzled and frustrated by the time I headed home.  I had also spent more than I planned, mostly so I could finish and get away from the crowds.

I vowed never to go out shopping on Black Friday again.  So far I’ve kept that vow.

Today I’m participating in Buy Nothing Day.

Now I haven’t been perfect in my observance of Buy Nothing Day.  I broke a nail (my one girly trait) and had to get it fixed today.  I also bought lunch at a fast food place because I forgot I was only going to pay for fixing my nails.  For the rest of the day, however, I will buy noting.

Why don’t you join me?

Technorati Tags: Buy Nothing Day

Earlier this month the state legislature cut the current state budget by $517 million. Over 60% ($325 million) of that cut was sliced out of education. That was just for the current state budget. The legislation is still trying to work out the cuts for next year’s budget. It’s a given that education will take a huge chunk.

I saw this cartoon and felt that it told the tale very well.

Technorati Tags: budget cuts, schools

These cartoons aptly describe my thoughts on the stimulus bill.

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Remember way back to May and June. Yeah, it’s a long time ago but you can do it. Way back then, top GOP leaders were all saying how bad pork-barrel spending was. They vowed to wage a war on “earmark” funds from any and all spending bills.

Like all “wars” the GOP party has declared in the last year (remember the “war on poverty” this one ended as soon as the spending bills hit the floor.

40 attempts made this year to rid spending bills of special-interest “earmarks” were blocked by the same people who claimed to see how bad they were for the budget. Fiscal conservatives tried to keep the battle going, but it’s hard to do when your party has been taken over by big government neo-cons.

Three GOP House of Representative leaders, Dennis Hastert, John Boehner, and Roy Blunt, have not voted against any projects that the fiscal conservatives tried to challenge. Hastert supported a $2.5 million project for the Illinois Technology Transition Center which was easily approved.

House leaders continue to claim that they are getting rid of the pork, yet they supported such projects as $500,000 to renovate a Banning, California municipal swimming pool, $1 million to Pennsylvania for a locomotive demonstration, $180,000 for tomato production in Ohio, and $1.4 million for Connecticut’s Mystic Aquarium.
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I was trying to decide if the phrase “fiscal conservative” had become an oxymoron. It is very hard to find a “fiscal conservative” in Washington right now. In the end, though, I’ve come to the decision that the phrase “fiscal conservative” is not an oxymoron. Republicans in Washington, however, should have their mouths smacked every time they claim to be “fiscally conservative.”

Determining if someone is fiscally liberal or conservative is not based on what people want to spend money. It’s determined by how people want to spend money.

Right now the Republican party represented by the people in power in Congress and the White House want to spend money like water.

Less than two months ago the GOP controlled Congress and Administration raised the debt ceiling for the 4th time to nearly $9 trillion dollars. At the time it was estimated that a vote to raise the new ceiling would be needed in about a year.

It might not be needed now, but House GOP leaders are hoping to raise the debt ceiling now.

The House $2.7 trillion dollar budget plan would raise the debt ceiling to nearly $10 trillion.

House Republicans were probably hoping that no one noticed the provision to raise the federal debt ceiling since they buried it on page 121 of their 151 page budget plan.

Back in March when they last raised the debt ceiling, I stated that maybe something would be done about this run-away spending being enacted by the Republican controlled Congress/Administration. I’m beginning to think that budget reform will never happen. At least not until truly “fiscally conservative” heads take over in Washington.