Good news and bad news about the Republican’s budget

By Tom Quiner [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMPLd-d8V2w&feature=player_embedded] The House Republicans unveiled their budget for America. The good news: they’re cutting spending by $32 Billion from March 5th through October 31st. The good news: it’s the biggest one time cut in discretionary spending in history. The bad news: in their Pledge to America, they promised to cut spending by…

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Three ways to reduce federal spending

By Tom Quiner Why the huge deficits? Liberals blame the Bush tax cuts. That notion can be quickly discounted. The Federal Government has pretty consistently collected taxes in the amount of 20% of gross domestic product for the past fifty years. It’s the spending that has changed. The reason for our huge deficits is the…

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This could be the Tea Party’s theme song

By Tom Quiner [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VR1bOha40U] Like most of the world, I love the great musical, Les Miserables. The characters were far more multi-dimensional than I had ever seen before in musicals.  The multiple, interwoven plot lines kept me on the edge of my seat. The classic song, Do You Hear the People Sing? reminds me of…

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Your tax dollars at work

By Tom Quiner I’d like to introduce you to Wendy Greuel, the Los Angeles City Controller. She issued a press release on Thursday with this headline: “City controller releases audits of how Los Angeles has used federal stimulus money.  $111 million in ARRA Funds has only created 55 jobs so far.” ARRA  stands for American…

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A Tale of Two Protests

Riots broke out in Greece as their lawmakers approved austerity cuts for their profligate government. Who are their rioters?  Tens of thousands of civil servants.  They turned violent in the face of cuts that will affect their pocket books.  These government workers live well.  After 35 years of government service, they can retire at 80…

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Why the Tea Party Movement exists

One simple chart from the Congressional Budget Office explains why a Tea Party Movement exists. Look at the last bar on the right.  Deficit spending hasn’t inched up, it hasn’t even exploded.  The operative verb is hemorrhaging.  Our budget is hemorrhaging because of spending imposed on America by the Democratic Party. These are partisan deficits.…

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My Tea Party Introduction

I attended the Tea Party rally at the State Capital in Des Moines last Friday, my first.  I had three specific things I was looking for: What is the single biggest issue of concern to this movement? How many people would show up? Are the people in this movement normal? Let me answer these questions…

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