CAUTION:: Political Crap

Rcvd this via email, thought it was interesting::

These are all the programs that the new Republican
House has proposed cutting. Read to the end.

* Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy. $445 million annual savings.
* Save America 's Treasures Program. $25 million annual savings.
* International Fund for Ireland . $17 million annual savings.
* Legal Services Corporation. $420 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Arts. $167.5 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Humanities. $167.5 million annual savings.
* Hope VI Program.. $250 million annual savings.
* Amtrak Subsidies. $1.565 billion annual savings.
* Eliminate duplicative education programs. H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.
* U.S. Trade Development Agency. $55 million annual savings.
* Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy. $20 million annual savings.
* Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding. $47 million annual savings.
* John C. Stennis Center Subsidy. $430,000 annual savings.
* Community Development Fund. $4.5 billion annual savings.
* Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid. $24 million annual savings.
* Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half. $7.5 billion annual savings
* Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20%. $600 million annual savings.
* Essential Air Service. $150 million annual savings.
* Technology Innovation Program. $70 million annual savings.
* Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program. $125 million annual savings.
* Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization. $530 million annual savings.
* Beach Replenishment. $95 million annual savings.
* New Starts Transit. $2 billion annual savings.
* Exchange Programs for Alaska , Natives Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts .. $9 million annual savings
* Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants. $2.5 billion annual savings.
* Title X Family Planning. $318 million annual savings.
* Appalachian Regional Commission. $76 million annual savings.
* Economic Development Administration. $293 million annual savings.
* Programs under the National and Community Services Act. $1.15 billion annual savings.
* Applied Research at Department of Energy. $1.27 billion annual savings.
* FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership. $200 million annual savings.
* Energy Star Program. $52 million annual savings.
* Economic Assistance to Egypt . $250 million annually.
* U.S. Agency for International Development. $1.39 billion annual savings.
* General Assistance to District of Columbia . $210 million annual savings.
* Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. $150 million annual savings.
* Presidential Campaign Fund. $775 million savings over ten years.
* No funding for federal office space acquisition. $864 million annual savings.
* End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.
* Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act. More than $1 billion annually.
* IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget. $1.8 billion savings over ten years.
* Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees. $1 billion total savings.WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees. $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
* Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of. $15 billion total savings.
* Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress. Lord help us!!!!!
* Eliminate Mohair Subsidies. $1 million annual savings.
* Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. $12.5 million annual savings
* Eliminate Market Access Program. $200 million annual savings.
* USDA Sugar Program. $14 million annual savings.
* Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). $93 million annual savings.
* Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program. $56.2 million annual savings.
* Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs. $900 million savings.
* Ready to Learn TV Program. $27 million savings..
* HUD Ph.D. Program.
* Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.
* TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years

My question is, what THE HELL is all this doing in the budget in the first place?

I think that keeping this thread title might be worthwhile during the lead-up to the 2012 culture war.

Or whatever you want to call it.

Time to post inflammatory, hilarious, ridiculous, and /facepalm-worthy items, ideas and discussions here.

To fire it up, let's begin with a pair of posts regarding the Texas governor running...

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/08/13/gov-rick-perry-america-needs-new-leadership-full-text-of-announcement-speech/?singlepage=true

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/08/13/its-perry-day-in-america-wake-up-and-smell-the-idiocy-already-hurled-at-him/

And I would LOVE to hear about the Texans' take on their guv running.

I am cautiously optimistic--not because of the right-wing baggage he brings with him, or because I have little doubt that a politician's claims of success rarely hold up under the light of fiscal truth...but because I didn't hear anything new from the Rethuglican candidates in Iowa. The text from his declaration puts him on a collision course with (a very necessary) culture war with America's income tax dodgers. We either do the things he is talking about--from a Libertarian perspective--or we go the way of London in our inner cities. Or rather, MORE the way of London.

J

Guy goes into a bar, there's a robot bartender.

The robot says, "What will you have?"

The guy says, "Martini."

The robot brings back the best martini ever and says to the man, "What's your IQ?"

The guy says," 168."

The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration and medical technology..





The guy leaves, but he is curious...So he goes back into the bar.

The robot bartender says, "What will you have?"

The guy says, "Martini."

Again, the robot makes a great martini gives it to the man and says, "What's your IQ?"

The guy says, "100."

The robot then starts to talk about Nascar, Budweiser and John Deere tractors.




The guy leaves, but finds it very interesting, so he thinks he will try it one more time.

He goes back into the bar.

The robot says, "What will you have?"

The guy says, "Martini," and the robot brings him another great martini.

The robot then says, "What's your IQ?"

The guy says, "Uh, about 50."

The robot leans in real close and says, "So, you people still happy you voted for Hope & Change?"



He-he!

love it

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little..
The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.
Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.