here is an interesting article detailing Gold and it’s valuation against things like your home, your savings and your income. Lots of neat graphs to easily put the conversation in some visual perspective.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-gold-tells-truth
The Unions are rife in PA Politics. Check out how some fiscally conservative Republicans turn away from real reform……
“After months of opposition from bipartisan coalitions in the House and Senate as well as SEIU Healthcare PA, AFSCME and the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, the Corbett administration is shifting course on a plan to privatize the nurses in Department of Corrections’ facilities.
When privatization of the nurses was being seriously considered for Pennsylvania, both Representative Mike Fleck (R-81) and Senator Dave Argall (R-29) introduced legislation to block this threat to the health and safety of all Pennsylvanians. Holding a joint press conference in November, Fleck and Argall outlined the dangers of privatization of this essential state service.”
Read about it all in this article.
You sure wouldn’t know it from the leaders in PAs GOP. They like “Casey the Commie” willing to forgive a 96% voting record with the Bamster and thinking that somehow an old PA name political dynasty is preferrable to real change. Any Republican who supports Casey needs to be evicted from any level of authority in the PA Republican party. Caseys’ supporters are not really Republicans, they are socialists and belong in the camp with Senator Bob Casey. Remember his dad, Casey Sr. and getting himself to the front of the organ donor line displacing regular PA people in need? Junior is cut from the same clothe and simply needs to go. He has had his time supporting Barack the neo-communist. Time for change.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_135/Is-Pennsylvania-In-Play-for-November-214491-1.html
Smith for Senate in 2012.
Lets’ see, how many times are we gonna hear this refrain. Generally this statement is emitted from the left with more hope than fact attached to it. This year was no different. The Tea party was simply measuring the “Can you hear us now?” effort and after counting up the impact Tea came up with a “time for a change” in plans decision. Tea started making regional and state-wide information flows. This happened roughly 2 years ago and got momentum about 9 months out.
For over a year and a half the Tea Party tried real hard to get the politician to hear us. They simply turned a deaf ear, or tin ear on the appeals from the Conservative side of their constituents. They thought we could be ridiculed, co-opted or simply ignored out of existence. Our governments are supposed to be Republican in nature and designed with power coming from the ground, the individual in society, not from the top down collectivist approach. If the politician ignores masses of these people, well the politician is simply not being real smart. At least not here in America. That may play well overseas but that cake don’t bake here in this country.
Accountability. Such a simple word yet so powerful. Tea started checking out the system. And that is what it really is, a big fat system. School Boards, political parties, special interests, unions and historic think tanks. Tea started reading the bills with the cynical double dealing naming conventions. Tea started finding out how all the political players have been all hooked together. We started watching the money flows. In and out and hooking back out from over there; and who the heck is that group? Why are they giving $30,000 to this person? Why do jobs that pay say $100,000 per year justify a $2,000,000 campaign? Why is that?
Finding things out is fun and quite eye-opening. You figure out pretty quick who is really sponging off the system. There are a lot of people sponging off your tax payments. A lot of times you simply don’t like the answer but today once you get engaged you get real mad at what the system does and keeps doing. The best sponging programs are in the government with their employees most of whom are unionized. The great part, Tea is finding out is there are solutions for all this stuff with people who are committed to fixing the system. There are activists, specialists and good people of all walks in life engaged in very specific educational teardown to learn more about sections and pieces of the system and then these people go around and give a speech, educate people and then there are now more people in the know.
The more people actively engaged, the more that gets done.
People are running for office and starting to move up the political food chain. They are educating their constituents and they are gathering support. More are joining.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/05/hot_steeping_tea.html
GM selling out the technology your fathers developed. This is how our political elites steel from us all in order to line their pockets.
What happens in Europe, as we move forward, isn’t going to stay there. Massive repercussions will come visit us here in the USA. It is important to keep up with what is going on over there in Euroland so you can have a little time to react to the anticipated fallout over here. To not keep up is asking for another hosing of your savings, equity and retirement when the inevitable happens.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/europe-has-bet-farm
Out of the leadership of the Republican party we see this defeatist attitude regarding delivering PA in either the Presidential or Senate elections. This type of attitude needs to go away with either new leadership or a total complete change in attitude. This article points out PA is in play and considering what is at stake with another 4 years of “Hope and Change”, why the heck wouldn’t the state be in play? Casey is just a Obama sock puppet and will fall with the Bamster and it is time for the leadership of PA Republican party to get the heck on the stick and start working to deliver the state not concede defeat before the game is even started. If Gleason isn’t up to the task, get someone else in the traces and start fighting NOW!
As I have gotten older I started to be concerned about information leakage. Personal information that simply gets out and enters a database and then is redistributed, traded or sold. Today we have much leakage and plans for even more. The government will be privy to your most intimate thoughts so if you want real privacy and secrecy in transmission from one party to another you better consider taking up the time-tested method of writing letters. Anything done online or transmitted online that has your name, address, social security number, credit card number or whatever associated with it will be an open book to the government official that has an interest. This includes third-party data, like what you buy or just bought at Giant because they scanned that little super saver card at checkout.
This is an area our Congress should address as Privacy and Secrecy of the individual is a basic right that should be paramount, not for sale to the highest bidder or for political distribution or whatever. Congress instead vapidly authorizes such expenditures to further control you as we see in the following article.
Not to be outdone by the Europeans we find off all kinds of new ways to dole out freebies.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/two-charts-exposing-americas-record-shadow-welfare-state
Thanks Chris…
Democracy Rising Pennsylvania
Last July, as state lawmakers celebrated their “fiscally responsible” cuts to programs that serve the real needs of citizens, they continued to hoard a $183.6 million surplus in a variety of accounts that are hidden from public view until the legislature’s annual audit.
This surplus is significantly lower than the $212.5 million surplus at the end of the 2009-10 fiscal year. Yet that number, reported in the attached line item detail available on the DR web site, is $24 million higher than lawmakers had previously acknowledged. Again at today’s meeting, the previous surplus was reported to be $188.5 million, a number that does not appear in the actual audit report.
Some may recall that the House and Senate promised to give back $62.7 million of their surplus to the General Fund as a contribution toward a multi-billion-dollar deficit in 2010-11. It didn’t happen. The audit report released today, months behind schedule, says that the $62.7 million give-back is occurring this year. However, no documentation was available that the transactions actually occurred. DR will seek the documentation and let you know.
According to today’s report, the Senate ended the year with a surplus of $70.1 million (down from $84.9 million); the House with a surplus of $94.7 million (down from $105.2 million); and Legislative Service Agencies with a surplus of $18.7 million (down from $22.5 million).
An Odd Meeting
Today’s meeting of the Legislative Audit Advisory Commission was notable for several things. After House leadership repeatedly told DR and Rock the Capital that the audit results could not be released prior to the committee meeting, we learned that the surplus figure was, in fact, given to Associated Press last weekend.
The meeting began with Sen. Vince Hughes (Philadelphia) asking for an executive session to discuss “personal” matters. There is nothing in law that permits executive sessions for that purpose. Nevertheless, LAAC Chair Gordon Denlinger (Lancaster) required reporters and the public to leave the room. When the meeting was again open to the public, Denlinger reported that the closed-door session was needed to discuss attendance at meetings and the schedule of future meetings.
As the meeting progressed, the participants had to be reminded repeatedly to give the documents being discussed to those in the audience for the public meeting.
Question: What really required the secrecy of an “executive session”? Or was it simply illegal?
If in fact the House and Senate have returned $62.7 million to the General Fund, that would reduce the legislature’s surplus to just under $121 million. When reporters asked how large a surplus the legislature should have, Denlinger said that $120 million was at the “ragged edge” of what was required to stand up to the governor.
To put even this lower number in context:
It gives lawmakers a surplus equal to 40.4% of the legislature’s operating budget last year. By comparison, all but the smallest school districts in PA are limited by law to 8%. Human service agencies often are limited to 3%.
If the executive branch had a comparable percentage surplus, it would equal $11 Billion; yes, that’s billion.
If the judicial branch had a comparable percentage surplus, it would equal another $121 million.
By lawmaker logic, to protect the three branches of our government from each other, taxpayers should be prepared to shell out more than $11.2 Billion and get nothing of value in return.
Excuses, excuses
Lawmakers have two main excuses for hoarding money for themselves while cutting support for everyone else.
1. “If we give the money back to the Treasury, it will just end up in Philadelphia.” Not true. To end up in Philadelphia, the legislature would have to appropriate it and the governor would have to sign the appropriation before the money could leave the General Fund. Who believes that’s really going to happen?
2. “If we don’t have a reserve in case of a budget impasse with the governor, the legislature will be at a disadvantage in negotiations.” Not true. The legislature’s surplus does not create a level playing field. It tilts the field, giving the legislature an advantage over the governor. More to the point, only the legislature can avoid a budget impasse by simply passing a budget on time. Having a surplus creates an incentive not to pass the budget on time by putting the governor in a desperate position and sparing lawmakers from the pain of their indecision.
Details, details: Line item surpluses on July 1, 2010
In many cases, the individual line items for the House and Senate had a larger surplus on July 1, 2010 than they would spend during the year, yet they still received new money. In the Senate, for example:
The line item for “Salaries and wages of employees of the Chief Clerk” began with a surplus of $2 million and ended with a surplus of $4.6 million. Actual expenses and commitments were $148,000. With a surplus of $2 million and expenses of $148,000, why did this line get $2.7 million in new money?
The line item for “Incidental expenses” began with a $3.4 million surplus and ended with a surplus of $3.9 million. Actual expenses and commitments were $2.4 million. Why did this line get $3 million in new money?
The line item for “Senators’ expenses” began with a $2.7 million surplus and ended with a $2.1 million surplus. Actual expenses and commitments were $907,903. Why did this line get $1.2 million in new money?
The line for the Republican Appropriations Committee began with a surplus of $117,000 and ended with a surplus of $343,500. Actual expenses and commitments were $22,501. Why did this line get $249,000 in new money?
The line for the Democratic Appropriations Committee began with a surplus of $113,000 and ended with a surplus of $257,500. Actual expenses and commitments were $104,500. Why did this line get $249,000 in new money?
A similar pattern holds in the House where the surplus for 22 of 39 line items grew during the year. In 19 line items, there was already more money available than would be spent during the year, yet lawmakers gave themselves more money anyway.
Many of the legislature’s line items, most fairly small, are listed only as “Contingent expenses,” and many of them have surpluses that are 10, 20, and 30 times greater than their actual expenses and commitments. What is the purpose behind such huge surpluses?
Altogether the surplus for “Contingent expenses” totals $1.5 million in the House and $602,000 in the Senate. These are not to be confused with “Incidental expenses,” which add another $2.4 million in the House Chief Clerk’s Office to the $3.9 million in the Senate ief Clerk’s Office noted above.
Finally, a similar pattern holds in the variety of “legislative service agencies.” For example, the Legislative Budget & Finance Committee began 2010-11 with a surplus of $3.3 million and ended the year with a surplus of $3.7 million. Its expenses and commitments for the year were $1.4 million. So why did this line item get $1.8 million in new money?
What can we do about it?
Speak up. Everywhere you can. Don’t accept business as usual.
Gov. Tom Corbett has proposed additional money for all of the line items where lawmakers already have more money than they need. He also has the power of line item veto. That is, he can simply delete any line item in the budget he doesn’t like. He should begin with every line item where the surplus is already greater than the amount expected to be spent during the year.
Will Gov. Corbett use his veto power? Or will he continue to break his promises about getting tough with legislative excesses?
Will your own lawmakers continue to overspend on themselves while cutting everyone else? Or will they tell legislative leaders to give back the surplus and refuse money they don’t really need?
Note: The audit report and the report of line items are available on the Democracy Rising PA web site as attachments to this edition of DR News. Click here.
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