Washington DC , House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) issued the following statement about today’s Senate committee hearing on the nomination of Scott Garrett to be President of the Export-Import Bank:
“The Export-Import Bank is a deeply troubled government agency connected to cases of fraud, bribery and abuse. Scott Garrett is a true reformer who will steer the Bank in a much-needed new direction. Instead of bowing down to pressure from inside-the-Beltway special interest groups, senators should be looking out for the interests of hardworking taxpayers. President Trump was right to nominate Scott Garrett, a principled leader who will put an end to the Bank’s well-documented management failures.”
As night follows day, defenders of big government trotted out “Sesame Street’s” Big Bird as the poster child of President Trump’s terrible spending cuts.
The Daily Beast story on Trump’s budget proposal to cut taxpayer funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting features an ax-wielding man about to chop Big Bird’s head off. Politico has a story titled “Can Big Bird Survive Trump?” In a “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” segment mocking Trump’s budget, Donald Trump fires Big Bird.
These folks would do well to find a new mascot. Big Bird is big business, and doesn’t need taxpayer money to survive.
First, let’s take a look at Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces “Sesame Street.”
Last year, Sesame Workshop had $121.6 million in revenues. Of that, $49.6 million came in distribution fees and royalties and $36.6 million in licensing of toys, games, clothing, food and such. In 2014, only 4% of its revenue came from government grants.
Despite being a taxpayer-supported nonprofit, Sesame Workshop pays its top executives fabulously well.
Trump is successful because many many people are simply sick to death of politicians and want to try something new. Hillary Clinton is easily the most dishonest person to run for office in our lifetimes. She will say or do anything to push her profit-making agenda forward. Even if you by-in to the liberal/progressive/socialist agenda that she’s espousing, you have to be the most gullible person on the face of the earth if you believe for one second that she’s doing anything but spend YOUR money to keep poor people poor and voting Democrat. She wants to go down in history as the first woman President, and then make money from it. That’s it. Trump is just as much a narcissist, but at least might not immediately try and raise taxes or waste more money on Union-payout road building or funding more Solyndras.
Ridgewood NJ, Josh Gottheimer will outline his “comprehensive plan” to spur economic growth and create jobs in New Jersey’s 5th Congressional District Wednesday.
Gottheimer another PR person like Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn .Not sure many residents will share any enthusiasm given the bad taste the Jim Mac Greevey mouth piece has left in Ridgewood .Gottheimer donor list is a who’s who of Big Government ,Unions, pro Wall Street bailouts, pro-corporate welfare , pro-crony types looking to remove the last impediment to getting their hands on more tax payer money.
According to his press release ,Gottheimer will be joined by local business leaders at Ridgewood Cycle Shop at 11 a.m in Ridgewood on Wednesday to present his “comprehensive plan” to spur economic growth and create good-paying jobs for 5th District families. The local business leaders seem to be a laundry list of the same people who brought you “Garagezilla ” and other crony related projects the soon to be former mayor Paul Aronsohn tried to jam down residents throats in Ridgewood .
For his part Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) will be in Wyckoff at the Blue Moon Mexican Café at 2pm on Thursday to discuss issues facing small businesses, like restaurants, in New Jersey including taxes and health care.
“Follow the money.” That telling phrase, which has come to summarize the Watergate scandal, has been a part of the lexicon since 1976. It’s shorthand for political corruption: At what point do “contributions” become bribes, “constituent services” turn into quid pro quos and “charities” become slush funds?
Ronald Reagan was severely criticized in 1989 when, after he left office, he was paid $2 million for a couple of speeches in Japan. “The founding fathers would have been stunned that an occupant of the highest office in this land turned it into bucks,” sniffed a Columbia professor.
So what would Washington and Jefferson make of Hillary Rodham Clinton? Mandatory financial disclosures released this month show that, in just the two years from April 2013 to March 2015, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state collected $21,667,000 in “speaking fees,” not to mention the cool $5 mil she corralled as an advance for her 2014 flop book, “Hard Choices.”
Throw in the additional $26,630,000 her ex-president husband hoovered up in personal-appearance “honoraria,” and the nation can breathe a collective sigh of relief that the former first couple — who, according to Hillary, were “dead broke” when they left the White House in 2001 with some of the furniture in tow — can finally make ends meet.
No wonder Donald Trump calls her “crooked Hillary.
Ridgewood NJ, Reader challenges Ridgewood blog on “Free Market principles “claiming we are picking the candidates in favor of more regulation against “free market developers and development”.
“Ironic that “Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View” is in favor of a government that promises to be more restrictive than the alternative, but in this case, Jamsie, I agree with you 100%.
I hope you are learning the flaws in your Randian world view, specifically, left to their devices, the “job creators” would starve themselves out of existence. In the case of Ridgewood: motivated by short term benefit, the Job Creators (i.e. CBD restaurant owners and landlords) would overdevelop the CBD and surrounding areas to the detriment of our community, schools and way of life. In the long term, the quality of the schools would decline even more, the quaintness of the village would erode, property values would drop, and before you know it, you live in a version of Caldwell or whatever.
The judicious application of regulation is a good thing.”
Got to laugh on this one but the reader is a bit confused ;
The Free Market is ,”A system of economics that minimizes government intervention and maximizes the role of the market. According tothe theory of the free market, rational economic actors acting in their own self interest deal with information and price goods and services the most efficiently. Government regulations, trade barriers, and labor laws are generally thought to distort the market. Proponents of the free market argue that it provides the most opportunities for both consumers and producers by creating more jobs and allowing competition to decide what businesses are successful. ”
What we have in Ridgewood and New Jersey as well as on a National level is called by many Crony capitalism or Cronyism , “Crony capitalism is a description of capitalist society as being based on the close relationships between businessmen and the state. Instead of success being determined by a free market and the rule of law, the success of a business is dependent on the favoritism that is shown to it by the ruling government in the form of tax breaks, government grants and other incentives.”
Developers using the Village Council forcing tax payers to pick up the tab for a parking garage that clearly benefits certain businesses ie those that support the Mayor and his consorts is not in any way shape or form “Free Market Capitalism” but clearly a local example and the very definition of “Cronyism”. The negative issues associated with over development in the Village are all a direct or indirect cause be they foreseen and unforeseen consequences of government intervention ie.. 3066 , COAH, open space , and so on . These tax breaks, government grants and other incentives are all put in place to aid developers and to garner political contributions .
Crony capitalism is the marriage of the state and private special interests. Some people have called it corporatism, mercantilism, fascism, or even Communism.
Wyckoff NJ, Former White House speechwriter officially will seek to oust U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-5th Dist.) with an announcement Monday afternoon in Northvale. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is scheduled to be there as well.
The Wyckoff Democrat Gottheimer is a former speech writer for President Bill Clinton and worked in corporate strategy for Microsoft. He grew up in North Caldwell and has lived for the past four years in Wyckoff with his wife and two children.
“Scott Garrett isn’t pro-family,” Gottheimer said. “He’s not pro-business. He’s Dr. No. Dr. No to everything, and that hurts families here in New Jersey.”
So what is Josh Gottheimer for ? In one word BAILOUTS!
At a September possible Democratic candidate Gottheimer fundraiser that came less than a week after James Cicconi, the RINO Republican head of external affairs at AT&T Inc., and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Peter Scher hosted another one for the Democrat.Attendees included executives from Blackstone, Comcast, Verizon, McGraw Hill, U.S. Telecom Association, Tribune Media, United Health, Ogilvy & Mather, Raben Group and Akin Group. The invitation for the event had said it was “an excellent opportunity to oust one of the most conservative members of the House of Representatives.”
Bloomberg News, which was the first to report plans for the Cicconi fundraiser, said some business executives had already been growing tired of Garrett. They were apparently bothered by his vote against big spending former Speaker John Boehner,and were troubled that he has opposed the crony driven , taxpayer funded corporate welfare, Export-Import Bank.
Garret also strongly opposes bailouts and in 2010 said , “The American people are tired of the safety net that has been provided to Wall Street. They want to put an end to the continued bailouts, and the bill currently under consideration in the Senate fails to accomplish this task. Wall Street is not afraid of this bill – as a matter of fact, Goldman Sachs, the same bank that has been charged by the SEC with fraud — and which also happens to have been President Obama’s single largest corporate donor in 2008 — has endorsed much of it. Goldman supports the bill because they know that it gives them and others an advantage in the marketplace by allowing their shareholders and creditors to be bailed out if they get into trouble because of the risks they take. …. We must end the era of bailouts and stop rewarding banks like Goldman Sachs with regulation that fails to protect American taxpayers.”
This stand against corporate bailouts and industry sponsored Dodd Frank has made Garrett unpopular in certian parts of the business community . In 2011 Garrett issued a strongly worded statement on Dodd Frank and the institutionalized “too big to fail policy” , “In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, Democrats insisted that more regulation was the answer to our problems and that they had the right prescription to address the ailments of our financial system. As it turns out, the 2,000 page bill they produced was not the right solution. One year after it was signed into law, Dodd-Frank has done little to prevent another financial collapse, it has failed to streamline and simplify regulation, and it has actually codified ‘too big to fail’ and taxpayer bailouts into statute. When the American people asked for limited government, less burdensome regulation, debt reduction and, most importantly, job creation, this was hardly the solution they had in mind.”
Obama and Ryan, Long at Odds, Said to Meet as Soon as Next Week
Margaret Talev
Angela Greiling Keane
January 22, 2016 — 3:02 PM EST
President Barack Obama and House Speaker Paul Ryan may sit down together at the White House for a long-anticipated meeting as soon as next week, a person familiar with their plans said.
The blizzard bearing down on Washington may force them to postpone if the capital remains shut down at the start of next week.
The two men haven’t spent significant time together since Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, was sworn in as speaker in October. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said last week that the president hoped that they would have a chance to talk face-to-face “relatively soon.” The person who said the meeting may happen next week asked for anonymity because the timing hasn’t been settled.
It wasn’t clear whether other congressional leaders would take part. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Doug Andres, a spokesman for Ryan, said that “nothing is currently scheduled.” Jen Friedman, deputy White House press secretary, declined to comment.
Obama, 54, and Ryan, 45, have enough in common personally and in some policy areas for the foundation of a relationship, if either of them desired one. They also have enough accrued tension to dissuade either from bothering in Obama’s final year in office.
“The Obama administration said last year that about 85% of enrollees received the subsidy and got an average tax credit of $270 a month.”
The only reason people were willing to buy the overpriced, poor value insurance, was that taxpayers were footing a major portion of the bill. How could our lawmakers have devised such an awful scheme, and then call it “health-care reform?”
A new automated system on the way should alleviate potential problems identified by federal oversight agency
By
STEPHANIE ARMOUR
Jan. 6, 2016 12:00 a.m. ET
The Obama administration wasn’t able to ensure that all tax-credit payments made to insurers under the health law in 2014 were on behalf of consumers who had paid their premiums, according to a federal oversight agency.
However, the agency noted the Obama administration this year is moving to a new automated system that should alleviate potential problems identified in its investigation. The Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General is scheduled to release the report Wednesday.
The findings raise questions about the oversight of tax-credit payments that went to insurers on behalf of consumers who qualified for financial assistance.
Tax credits are a major enticement to low- and moderate-income people who buy insurance on exchanges under the Affordable Care Act because they lower monthly premium costs. After consumers sign up for coverage, they can choose to have the federal government distribute the tax-credit payments to insurers to lower their premiums. Nearly $11 billion in tax credits were paid to insurers in fiscal 2014, according to a report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.
The Obama administration said last year that about 85% of enrollees received the subsidy and got an average tax credit of $270 a month.
Ridgewood NJ, I can’t imagine that a local company involved in the training & education of your children would spend money to advertise a product they could not deliver, could you?
Therefore, the appearance of this advertisement in a recent edition of the Suburban News, which indicates that a commercial enterprise (HealthBarn USA) is planning to use Village of Ridgewood owned property (The Stable) as its primary training location – currently without the formal approval of Ridgewood’s Village Council – makes me wonder whether someone at Village Hall should be investigated, or someone there should be fired.
Univision and NBC may claim to be distancing themselves from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump over his recently stated opposition to criminal illegal aliens, but Trump’s strong stance against criminal illegals has been well established for years and buttressed by governmental data.
In his 2011 bestselling book, Time to Get Tough, Trump held both Republicans and Democrats responsible for the nation’s failed immigration policies and cited Government Accountability Office (GAO) data revealing the economic costs the nation’s 351,000 criminal aliens imposed on U.S. taxpayers at the time.
“Both sides need to grow up and put America’s interests first—and that means doing what’s right for our economy, our national security, and our public safety,” wrote Trump. “According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) 2011 report, America’s prisons house 351,000 criminal aliens who committed a crime after having already broken the law by entering America illegally.”
Trump added, “Making taxpayers pay for 351,000 criminals who should never have been here in the first place is ridiculous.”
Senate urged to approve $1.1 trillion spending bill to keep government running
DECEMBER 12, 2014, 4:03 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2014, 11:48 PM
BY DAVID ESPO AND ANDREW TAYLOR
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Friday urged the Senate to ratify a $1.1 trillion, House-passed spending bill that has roiled his Democratic Party, judging it an imperfect measure that stems from “the divided government that the American people voted for.”
What’s in the bill
The $1.1 trillion, 1,603-page bill awaiting a Senate vote is mostly spending choices, such as adding $5.4 billion to fight the Ebola virus or trimming the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by $60 million. But it’s also packed with a mishmash of “riders,” many of which couldn’t get through Congress on their own.
Here are some things the bill would affect:
SCHOOL LUNCHES: Eases rules requiring more whole grains in school lunches and suspends the lower sodium standards due to take effect in 2017, while keeping other healthy-eating rules. Some school nutrition directors — and some students complaining of yucky lunches — lobbied for a break from the standards championed by first lady Michelle Obama.
TRUCK SAFETY: Rolls back safety rules that were supposed to keep sleepy truckers from causing wrecks. The government’s rules had effectively shortened truckers’ maximum workweek from 82 hours to 70. The trucking industry fought back.
BANKING: Loosens rules imposed after the 2008 financial crisis. The change relaxes regulation of high-risk investments known as “derivatives” — rules that were imposed to reduce risk to depositors’ federally insured money and prevent more taxpayer bailouts. Banks said the crackdown stifled the competitiveness of the U.S. financial industry.
MARIJUANA: Offers a mixed bag for pot smokers. The bill blocks the Justice Department from raiding medical marijuana dispensaries in states that permit them. But it also blocks federal and local spending to legalize marijuana in Washington, D.C., where voters approved recreational use in a November referendum. It’s unclear what the practical effect of the spending ban will be.
PENSIONS: Allows some pension plans to cut benefits promised to current and future retirees. The change is designed to save some financially strapped plans from going broke. It applies to multiemployer plans, which cover more than 10 million people mostly at small, unionized employers, often in the construction business.
CAMPAIGN MONEY: Allows more money to flow into political parties. Under the new rules, each superrich donor could give almost $1.6 million per election cycle to political parties and their campaign committees. The comparable limit for 2014’s elections was $194,400.
THE SAGE GRO– USE: Says “no” to putting the greater sage grouse and three related birds on the endangered species list. Environmentalists say time to save them is running out as their sagebrush habitat disappears. But oil and gas companies and other businesses argued that protecting the chicken-sized birds on Western lands would hurt business and local economies.
LIGHT BULBS: Attempts to switch off federal rules that are making it harder to find old-fashioned incandescent bulbs. The bill extends a ban on the government spending money to enforce the ongoing phase-out of incandescent bulbs. It may not have much effect, since manufacturers and stores are already well-along in the switch to spiral bulbs and other energy-saving alternatives.
HUNTING AND FISHING: Prohibits the EPA from regulating lead in ammunition or fishing tackle. Lead in fishing sinkers and bullet fragments are being blamed for poisoning birds, such as loons and the endangered California condor. Republicans said EPA regulation would be overreach and just the threat of it was making it hard to find bullets in stores.
OFFICIAL PORTRAITS: Continues a ban on spending money on portraits of Cabinet secretaries, Congress members and other big shots, a Washington tradition that some lawmakers felt had gotten out of hand.
THE CAPITOL DOME: Spends $21 million to continue restoration of the leaky, cracked U.S. Capitol dome.
One day after House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi publicly chastised him for supporting the bill, the president said there were provisions “I really do not like.” At the same time, he said there were other portions that “fund health insurance, early childhood education, the fight against climate change, and expand manufacturing hubs to grow jobs.”
He offered his assessment as Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid also announced support for the legislation, further underscoring the split inside the party. The Democrats will lose control of the Senate in January because of heavy losses in midterm elections last month and will go deeper into a House minority than at any time since 1928.
Are You Out There, Stimulus? It’s Me, The Taxpayer. Nick Gillespie|Mar. 28, 2013 8:39 am
Columnist Ron Hart asks a question that’s answered by the cover story of the current issue of Reason (and perfectly summarized by the cover image of same): Where did all that sweet stimulus money go?
Of the money spent in swing state Wisconsin, 80 percent went to public sector unions – those with already locked-in jobs. In fact, right-to-work states got $266 less per person in stimulus money than heavily unionized states. Where Democrats had a vast majority of representatives, their states got $460 per person more.
More pointedly, Hart writes,
Remember when Obama got his trillion-odd dollars of “stimulus money” which he and the Democrats breathlessly said we needed for “shovel ready” jobs to re-build roads and infrastructure? Please e-mail me if anything of the sort got built in your town. Nothing got built in the cities where I spend time….
Peter Suderman’s article in the May issue – which you’d be reading right now if you subscribed for just $14.63 under our special Sequestration Offer – lays out exactly where stimulus spending went and why it didn’t work as advertised.
Yes, tens of millions of dollars literally went to install new toilets in parks Alaska, New Mexico, Washington state, and elsewhere. If only we could have flushed our way to recovery.
More important, Suderman writes (and this can’t be underscored enough), “The economy’s performance continues to be far worse than the White House’s worst-case projections for what might happen if there had been no stimulus at all.”
