Incompetent U.S. Congress ‘kicks can’ . . . and ‘passes buck’ to next President and Congress . . . Passes short-term spending bill to fund Federal Government thru Dec 9

Captain Rick: The Senate and House passed a short-term spending bill that prevented a government shutdown at the end of the week. It has White House backing.

This legislation allows Congress to ‘kick the can down the road’ until after America elects a new President and new members of Congress. With a bunch of ‘lame ducks’ residing in congress at that time, you can bet they will again ‘kick the can down the road’ with another short-term spending bill to fund the government until after a new President and Congress take office in January. That’s when the excitement begins …

Fights over raising the debt limit broke out between the Obama White House and ruling Republicans in Congress in 2011 and 2013, unsettling Wall Street and foreign investors. The two sides struck a deal in 2015 to suspend the debt limit until Obama left office. The federal debt limit has been suspended since late 2015, but the law is set to be reinstated on March 16, 2017. The current debt limit of $20.1 trillion will be breached and another funding emergency will be at hand to prevent another U.S. government shutdown.

Government shutdowns in the past have become a ‘joke’ in that certain federal employees are told to stay home without pay, until Congress passed legislation to fund the government, which often included increasing the national debt and awarded compensation for all lost pay … meaning their time off was really an extra paid vacation; an insult to hard working employees of ‘Main Street’ America. The ‘Shutdown Game’ can not continue much longer because America is coming ever so close to falling off of the real and pending ‘Fiscal Cliff’. Many federal programs like Obamacare, Medicaid, Medicare and even Social Security are projected to implode in coming years without serious spending/taxation reform.

The U.S. National Debt has more than doubled since President Obama took office; from $9 trillion to $19.5 today. It is exploding at rate of $1.35 trillion each year. More than $10 trillion of ‘red ink debt dollars’ have been spent to keep the federal government functioning during the Obama Administration.

About 15% of money spent by the federal government has no revenue to support the expenditure and thus adds to the national debt. Much of this debt spending goes to states and cities in the form of federal grants. Our states and cities ‘drink up’ the grants like it is ‘free money coming from heaven’. Their philosophy is ‘if we don’t get the grant, some other city or state will’. What an awesomely greedy and fiscally reckless way to think. Shame on every city and state in America for slurping up these slush grants which add to the mushrooming U.S. National Debt. Our cities and states are a main contributors to the growing problem of America’s National Debt … debt which will be placed upon future generations to pay back … including our children and grand children. It’s a serious matter to think about.

I hope the next President and Congress will begin to balance the budget and curtail deficit spending. Saving America from falling off of the real and pending ‘Fiscal Cliff’, will not be easy. It will require ‘belt tightening’ by people, cities and states across America and most importantly by the U.S. Federal Government and our elected representatives in the U.S. Congress.

U.S. Economy limps along in ‘Anemic Zone’ … a place between 0 real growth & Recession …What does this hold for America’s future?

Captain Rick: Final U.S. GDP for Q4 2013 was a disappointing 2.4%, downgraded from the earlier estimate of 3.2%. Early estimates are notoriously optimistic. This GDP figure sounds a wake-up alarm that America is stuck in the GDP ‘Anemic Zone’ … a place between zero real growth and ‘Recession’. 

GDP (Gross National Product) is the broadest means of quantifying the health of an economy. GDP is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders.

BLUE LINE: 3.0% GDP Growth is required to keep up with U.S. Population Growth. GDP above the blue line represents real growth that adds real jobs. GDP below the blue line indicates real economic decline that is loosing real jobs. GDP below the blue line, but above zero line (‘Recession’), is what Captain Rick calls the ‘Anemic Zone’.

RED LINE: 2.24% GDP Growth is the average of what the U.S. economy scored in the past 8 quarters (2 years). This demonstrates that the U.S. economy is stuck in the economic ‘Anemic Zone’…not mustering enough growth to keep up with population growth. 

What caused the recent GDP decline?

Weakness in the housing sector is a factor. Investment in residential real estate slowed for the first time in three years. I see that as good, as the previous pace was heading rapidly towards another real estate bubble.  Real estate values have peaked and have begun decline in some areas of the U.S., like Gilbert, Arizona that led the value resurgence a few months ago.  

Perhaps the decline in federal QE (debt) spending played the biggest role as a result of the $20 Billion reduction QE (debt) spending per month. The latest GDP decline demonstrates the power that debt spending can have on the economy. If the U.S. were to curtail the remaining $65 Billion in QE debt spending per month, the U.S. might slip into recession. The bottom line is that the U.S. QE debt spending helps the U.S. economy look like its only anemic…when it is actually in recession. This will play out as the Fed is forced to reduce QE debt spending to keep the U.S. from going over the new U.S. Debt Ceiling, recently raised to $17.2 Trillion by the U.S. Congress.

U.S. Fiscal Reality Check

U.S. GDP: $16.1 Trillion

U.S. National Debt: $17.4 Trillion (already exceeds new ceiling), ($55,000 per citizen, $151,000 per tax payer)

U.S. Debt held by foreign countries: $6 Trillion

U.S Federal Spending: $3.5 Trillion

U.S. Federal Revenue: $2.9 Trillion

U.S. Federal Deficit: $0.6 Trillion

Source: USDebtClock.org

What does this GDP data mean concerning the future of America?

America is stuck in a land of anemic growth…actually declining in real growth because its economy can not consistently rise above 3% growth … a level required to produce enough jobs and income to keep pace with population growth. In reality, this means that America is declining in economic strength. In the coming few years America faces an astronomical increase in expenditures due to entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare and welfare programs like Medicaid and Obamacare. America’s relatively level revenue will not be able to cover the mushrooming expenditures. Congress will not be able to address this problem by simply ‘kicking the debt can down the road’ as it has in recent years. At some point soon, the fiscal mess that is brewing will explode as America plunges over the pending ‘real fiscal cliff’.  At the bottom lies America as a third world country.

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Interesting ATRIDIM NEWS JOURNAL Report Categories:

GDP

U.S. Debt Crisis

Economy

Entitlement Reform

Social Security

Medicare

Medicaid

ObamaCare

Captain Rick’s Fiscal Cliff Course 101

U.S. Government Shutdown looming again on October 1, 2013 … Likelihood it will: 99%

Captain Rick: A shutdown of the U.S. Government will most likely begin on October 1, 2013, the beginning of the new fiscal year. There is currently no budget agreement to fund the U.S. Government for the coming year. The Democrat led Senate and the the Republican led House are in a stalemate that does not appear likely will be rectified by October 1. The real showdown will come on or before October 17, when the U.S. Government reaches the debt ceiling of $16.699 trillion and will begin defaulting on its financial obligations, an event that has never before occurred.

The last threat of shutdown occurred on March 27, 2013. It was averted by an agreement to allow Sequester spending cut’s (part of the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ legislation that became effective on January 1, 2013) to gain some flexibility regarding where to make spending cuts, in lieu of the mandatory across the board cuts.

My goal is to help increase understanding of the extremely important events that are unfolding…

U.S. Government Shutdown … What will happen? Non essential elements of the government will begin shutting down. These are things like National Parks and Monuments and the federal employees and contractors that support them. The employees would be furloughed. Contractors would have their payments delayed. At no time in the past has a shutdown lasted for more than a month. In every case the contractors eventually got paid and the furloughed employees were awarded back pay, so in essence, they received a nice long paid vacation, compliments of the U.S. taxpayers. In every previous case of shutdown, it ended up costing tax payers more than if the government had remained open.

What does a shutdown accomplish? Nothing, except increased cost. It is however, a necessary reminder that our government needs spending to remain less than revenue. In reality the U.S. has been spending far more than it receives in revenue, especially in recent years.

U.S annual spending: $3.52 trillion

U.S. annual revenue: $2.69 trillion

U.S. annual deficit: $825 billion

Total U.S. National debt: $16.95 trillion

U.S. GDP: $15.91 trillion (U.S. Debt exceeds GDP…a wake up call to get the fiscal house in order…or prepare for economic destruction)

Who is to blame? First and foremost to blame is President Obama. He is our president, elected to lead our nation in a positive direction…yet he has demonstrated the most reckless spending in American history, especially with his Fed’s continuation of pumping $85 billion per month of ‘Quantitative Easing’ debt dollars into the American Economy (adding directly to the U.S. National Debt) in an effort to make an economically sick nation look just anemic. It is all ‘smoke and mirrors’ that is doing nothing more than increasing America’s debt at an astronomic expense and burden to future generations.  Second to blame is the entire U.S. Legislature, including the Senate and House, Republicans and Democrats. None of them impress me as having the intelligence or ability to agree on a plan to withdraw America from its insatiable addiction for debt spending far beyond its revenue. I believe most of them have their ‘pockets’ fed by ‘big money’.

Obama passes blame and creates fear in news conference: Today I listened to President Obama speak in a news conference casting fear upon Americans by placing blame for his reckless spending on the shoulders of the U.S. House:
“If Congress chooses not to pass a budget by Monday, the end of the fiscal year, they will shut down the government along with many vital services that the American people depend on,” The Senate “acted responsibly” by passing its bill, and “now it’s up to the Republicans in the House of Representatives to do the same.”
He asked Republicans “to think about who you’re hurting” by letting the government shut down, and said “it would throw a wrench into the gears of our economy at a time when those gears have gained some traction.”
He also made clear that a government shutdown wouldn’t stop the Affordable Care Act from being implemented. “That’s not going to happen. More than 100 million Americans currently already have new benefits and protections under the law. On Tuesday, about 40 million more Americans will be able to finally buy quality affordable health care just like anybody else.”

Reality Check. What really happened: This was one of the most disgusting, fear-causing set of statements I have heard President Obama make recently. What really happened is that the House sent a bill to the Senate that included defunding Obamacare (a program with an enormous cost that America can not afford at this time of financial crisis). The Senate revised the bill to remove the Obamacare defunding and sent it back to the House. In opposition to Obama’s statement, I believe the Senate did not act responsibly. If the House does not pass the bill on Monday (which it should not), it will not be the House that causes the shutdown as Obama warns. It will be the result of the failure of the President and the entire U.S. Legislature combined. Obama said that a shutdown will stop many vital services. This is not true, unless the shutdown lasted for a long period of time…or Obama chooses to focus on certain entities for political gain. Obama’s scare tactics of asking Republicans to ‘think of who they are hurting’ by the government shutdown are absolutely despicable. President Obama should ask himself who he is hurting by spreading such fear and lies. This shutdown does throw a ‘wrench’ into Obamas ‘gears’ to make the economy look ok, when it is really sucking badly. Obama is fixated on Obamacare, a mark he hopes the world will remember him by. He will push it, even if it contributes to the financial destruction of America.  In reality, 40 million Americans are going to find out that ‘affordable health care’ is not really affordable and the majority of them will pay (or evade) the penalty to avoid it. The resultant unexpected, massive costs will lie firmly on the backs of American tax payers and add directly to the U.S. national debt.  I have this on my list of future blog reports. It sounds to me like Obama is running scared and is choosing to hide his fear by casting false fear on Americans. That scares me. Does it scare you?

View the comments (below) for ongoing updates of important happenings at the U.S. Capitol concerning this unfolding story.

I have done my very best to chronicle the events that contributed to this first U.S. government shutdown in nearly 18 years…as displayed in my comment updates below. This report could be among the best chronicles on the web. I am honored that Google and other search engines have picked up on this report.  The views for this report have exceeded those of all other ANJ reports by a factor of 10X+. The view stats from the past week far surpass any previous week. It tells me that there are lots of people that are tuning into this blog post to get the real facts…not the hype found on virtually all web news sites and especially TV news casts.

I welcome your comments, likes, shares and following of my blog! (If not visible, click the red title above)

Associated ATRIDIM NEWS JOURNAL Report Categories:

U.S. Government Shutdown

Obamacare

U.S. Debt Crisis

Fed Financial Policy

Captain Rick’s Fiscal Cliff Course 101

Economy

Captain Rick listens to friends discuss hot topic of defunding Obamacare to prevent U.S. Government Shutdown on Oct. 1, 2013

Captain Rick: An email I sent to my world-wide list of e-friends about defunding Obamacare to prevent U.S. Government shutdown on October 1 went wild. I have never witnessed such an enthusiastic response.

I share the conversation below. I welcome everyone reading this to join in this conversation by placing a comment below.

I am listening to what you have to say…

How this discussion began on September 19, 2013: I shared the following with my email audience in an email publication called ‘Atridim Breaking News’.

ATRIDIM BREAKING NEWS: Rep. Salmon Stands with Senators Cruz and Lee and House Conservatives in Support of Defunding Obamacare

 

Captain Rick: I think this effort in the U.S. House is noble but will fail when it is passed to the ‘dead beat’ U.S. Senate…but I give my Arizona friend Rep Matt Salmon a ‘thumbs up’ for his outstanding efforts to defeat Obamacare…which is on course to help bankrupt America…even more so than it already is.

This is all part of the program to reach an agreement to prevent a U.S. government shutdown on October 1. I have a strong hunch that a shut down will happen…the first since 1995. It should happen. It needs to happen. It must happen to wake up America to realize that our wildly, drunken debt spending to make a sick economy look OK must end to protect America’s future…if one even exists.

The U.S. has been spending stimulus (debt) dollars at the rate of $85 billion per month. It is ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. Its making our economy look OK in the short term, but is doing untold damage for our economy in the coming years…setting up a U.S. economic train wreck that will have the magnitude to reduce America to a third world country. If you think I am kidding…stay tuned. It will all unfold before our eyes in the coming years.

I see little hope from the morons in Washington to solve our extremely sad fiscal problems facing America. There are a few good people fighting to save America. My friend Matt Salmon is one of them. Matt, have you considered running for President of the United States of America in 2016? If not, you should! You would receive my vote above all potential candidates. America desperately needs an intelligent mind at the controls to steer America away from the pending train wreck off of the real fiscal cliff…just ahead.

The conversation begins:

Anita of Arizona: We need our top Republican legislators to take out John McCain and Jeff Flake.   Matt would be a perfect candidate.  He’s clearly a principled, conservative Republican fighter!

Captain Rick: I totally agree. Jeff and John once stood tall representing Arizona…but as two of the ‘gang of 8 idiots’ in the U.S. Senate promoting amnesty for illegal immigrants, they appear to have sold out to liberal interests. If I didn’t know better, I would guess both of them are democrats. They fit in well in the democrat U.S. Senate, which is on track to fiscally destroy America. Hopefully America will come to its senses in the next election and do a general house cleaning of fiscal waste in the U.S. Senate by voting in some conservative blood. Short of that, I envision a continuation of America’s fiscal train ride heading at high speed for a monumental dive off of the real fiscal cliff just ahead.

Steven of Wisconsin: I think you are dead wrong on this issue of health care reform.  Obamacare as it is called will prevent health insurance companies from not giving insurance because pre-existing conditions, from spending less than 80% of the insurance premiums on health care, and from not covering dependents under the age of 27.  These things are already helping the common folk like me.  I don’t know why you and your conservative friends constantly undermine the middle class and support things that are not in our best interest.  Where were your friends when we bailed out the big banks, gave huge tax breaks to oil companies, and started two very costly wars?  Those representatives like Cruz do nothing for America but tear down and obstruct.  They restrict voting rights and women’s rights!  They aren’t the patriots and saviors of America.  They are the ones that caused our economic downturn and do nothing to improve America.  Voting 42 times to repeal Obamacare is insane. It doesn’t help my family or my budget.  But history will repeat itself…those same “conservatives” tried to repeal social security a million times and did not succeed because it helped Americans and is still helping us today.  It has very low overhead and is secure.  This is why I continue to support single payer health insurance.  Obamacare is not perfect….neither was social security when it passed.  Your attitude continues to support and promote the upper 1% of this country while the middle class shrinks to almost nothing.  Of course you blamed much of this shrinkage on unions which I did not respond to at the time because I ignored your comment.  But the lower and middle class will rise up along with the unions because they have no choice.  You continue to listen to yourself and Fox News.  The problem is you believe everything the right wing puts out there.  You will wake up after the next election and realize that America has spoken; you will not like what they said. Remember last election how surprised so many of your conservative friends were when Obama won the election!  They really did believe what they were spouting.

Captain Rick: Steven, thanks for your candid and expounded reply.  My voice (‘attitude’ as you refer to it) via ATRIDIM NEWS is designed to be provocative, to draw people in my world-wide audience out of the ‘woodwork’ to say what is ‘on their mind’. Your reply assures me that the design is working. I trust this will help assure my readers that I listen to, respect and report FEEDBACK received from everyone.

Concerning your statements about ‘my conservative friends,’ I must mention that my audience of friends from over 50 countries around the world represent every ‘walk of life’ and ever ‘point of view’. Not all of them share my ‘point of view’. You are one of those friends…and I am pleased you shared your ‘point of view’.

Ken of California:  Steven of Wisconsin, With respect to your comment “You continue to listen to yourself and Fox News.  The problem is you believe everything the right wing puts out there.”

I listen to the voice of reason!

The liberal notion of giving a free lunch to every bum out there only breeds a society of blood sucking leaches.

We live in the land of opportunity, but the opportunities are up to you! They are not for the government to rob from the working class to give to the lazy.

Kendall of California:  Captain Rick – Really like this email format in which you deliver updates and opinions. It could be just me, but there doesn’t seem to be a link to take me to the post so that I may leave a comment. Not quite sure which post its referring to. Or do I simply leave my comment in this email? Could that be the whole point.

If the ladder is this case, here is my two cents: First, Captain Rick, I really support and enjoy your style of allowing all voices to be heard, but still manage to maintain a civil environment. I appreciate that. It allows a reader to enter the fray without running for cover from unwarranted, off-topic deragotory remarks. That being said Ken of California: The points that you pertain to make are missed by shooting generalizations that each person that finds theirself accepting government assistance, are lazy bums. If you follow the same logic through, than following the Enron era and Bernard Madoff regime, all corporate executives are ruthless villians out simply for themselves. Neither is true. Indiviuals taking advantage of good intentions occur at all levels, in each circuit, every single day. I have read and listened to some very convincing arguments, and understand both sides. But even then, a voter has to choose. Unless you truly believe that every student who takes out a government loan, every family that finds theirselves being unable to make ends meet, and that every person who works can afford health insurance, than labeling the millions of honest, hard-working Americans, both Republicans and Democrats alike, as lazy bums, does nothing to educate those on why you cast your vote. Unless, like I said, that is what you believe. In that case, what fact book are you using so that I may have a look too – Kendall of California.

Captain Rick: Kendall, sincere thanks for your words of kindness for ‘my style’ of allowing voices to be heard while maintaining a civil environment … and for your appreciation. You guessed right in simply commenting by reply to this email. I know it seems very ‘old-fashioned’, but you must keep in mind that the e-friends that I have gathered from around the world over many years do not all partake of the social media that many of us do. Many are not on Facebook or WordPress, etc. The one media that they all do have in common is email. And so, I am pleased to present this seemingly ‘old-fashioned’ means of allowing my friends to join our conversation. Perhaps this is a bit like ‘going back to the future’.

PJ of Arizona:  All Steven of Wisconsin needs to know about the fallacy of ObamaCare is contained in this snippet from the most recent Seeing Red Arizona:

 

“In 2008, people in poverty represented 13.2 percent of America’s population. In 2012, the impoverished had risen to 15.0 percent of the population.

An even bleaker picture is painted in the Congressional Budget Office report, which sends an urgent message to Americans, as it says the nation’s debt is on an “unsustainable path.” Implementation of Obamacare will exacerbate the crisis. CBO warns federal debt held by the public will hit 100% of GDP by 2038.

A Fox News report details the results of a new poll showing an overwhelming majority of Americans are concerned about their health care plan under Obamacare. A majority — 68% — want to go back to the 2009 health care system. Concerns are not only shared by Republicans and Independents, but by a 56-percent majority of Democrats.

Gordon of Arizona: I really think that this scare of a shutdown is just another tactic like what happened back in the Bush era. Remember what they said? ”If we do not initiate the stimulus and bail out these large corporations right now, THE SKY IS GOING TO FALL!”. Looking back, we would have been much better off now if we had let them fail. My opinion is: LET THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWD! The local people will pick up the pieces (if that is what it comes to) and do a much better job of running things than Washington.

The conversation continues:

I welcome everyone reading this to join in this conversation by placing a comment below. If you do not see the comment box, click the red title to access the individual blog report. Everyone can comment by simply entering any name you choose and your email address. Your email address will never be shared. Information you choose to share yourself and the thoughts you have… is up to you.

I welcome your comments, likes, shares and following of my blog! (If not visible, click the red title above)

Associated ATRIDIM NEWS JOURNAL Report Categories:

Obamacare

U.S. Debt Crisis

Fed Financial Policy

Captain Rick’s Fiscal Cliff Course 101

Economy

Dow Jones

Captain Rick’s Investment 101

Stock and Bond Market

U.S. lawmakers kick the ‘debt can’ down the road again to satisfy their thirst for deficit spending … when will this farce end?

Captain Rick: The March 27 deadline for the U.S. government shutdown has been averted by yet another stunt by U.S. lawmakers to kick the U.S ‘debt can’ down the road AGAIN until the end of the fiscal year in September … when it will all come back to haunt us AGAIN.

U.S lawmakers finally brought the 2013 budget fight to an end on March 21 by approving a bill that ended the threat of a U.S. government shutdown on March 27. It funds the government through the end of the current fiscal year in September. The measure now set to become law reduces the impact of the $85 billion in forced cuts — called sequestration — to only $59 billion.

It establishes stop-gap budgets for targeted departments and programs. It resets priorities and helps better manage the draconian formula as set forth by the sequestration spending cuts. Overall, the legislation locks in $984 billion in non-entitlement program spending — a tiny drop from the $1.043 trillion initially approved before the forced sequestration cuts took effect.

I believe I speak for most Americans and many people around the world when I say … we have had enough of the “U.S. Capital Circus”. Its time for America’s president and lawmakers to unite and figure out a real solution to get America off of the deficit spending binge and balance the budget, followed by a way to pay back America’s monumental national debt of $1.7 trillion, which now exceeds America’s GDP. This is an extremely serious world economic issue … the world’s largest! Nothing else comes close in magnitude. Time is running short. Without real, credible action soon, America will fall over the real ‘Fiscal Cliff’ … a point of ‘no return’. It will take much of the world along for the fall.

I welcome your comments, likes and shares!

Info from previous reports:

Fiscal Cliff: https://atridim.wordpress.com/category/fiscal-cliff-course-101/

U.S. Debt Crisis: https://atridim.wordpress.com/category/u-s-debt-crisis/

U.S. Government Shutdown … looms March 27

Captain Rick: That “debt can” that President Obama kicked down the road on January 1 by signing of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, in an effort to avoid the Fiscal Cliff, revisits on March 27, 2013 when the federal government again faces a shutdown because it has again reached the debt ceiling, now set at $16.4 trillion.

Funding for the U.S. government expires on March 27, 2013 unless Congress acts. If they fail, the federal government will shut down on March 28. All government operations would cease, except for essential services.

Since lawmakers will not agree to a real budget by this date, they will have to agree on temporarily funding the government for a few weeks or a few months … again. The Republicans are presenting a plan on Thursday to extending funding to the end of the fiscal years which ends is September, but it includes a $7 billion restoration of defense funds in exchange for cuts elsewhere. A big question remains…will Democrats go along with this? It will all unfold in coming days.

Boehner’s comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press”

It is evident that the Republicans will allow no more tax increases…made very clear by House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) who said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he discussed the need to avoid a shutdown with President Obama at a meeting Friday between the president and congressional leaders.

Boehner said the House will vote this week to keep the federal government operating through September, when the fiscal year ends, and avoid a potentially politically damaging shutdown.

The move would be the second time since the election that Boehner has avoided a fight, desired by some House conservatives, in order to keep the GOP from possible blame. He led House Republicans to raise the debt ceiling in January to fend off a repeat of the 2011 conflict that led to the sequester.

“The president this morning agreed that we should not have any talk of a government shutdown,” Boehner said. “So I’m hopeful that the House and Senate will be able to work through this.”

“I’m going to say it one more time,” Boehner said. “The president got his tax hikes on January the first. The issue here is spending. Spending is out of control. There are smarter ways to cut spending than this silly sequester that the president demanded. And so, we need to address the long-term spending problem. But we can’t cut our way to prosperity.”

“We had a very pleasant meeting, but it was also a very frank meeting,” Boehner said. “I made it clear to the president that again, a trillion dollars worth of tax hikes in Obamacare. And you have another $650 billion worth of tax hikes on January the first. You can’t tax our way out of this problem. We’ve got to deal with the spending side, just like every American family has to.”

Listen, every American knows Washington has a spending problem. Every American, in these tough economic times, has to find a way to balance their budget.”

Boehner said Republicans were done raising taxes after agreeing to the “fiscal cliff” deal in January that raised more than $600 billion in revenue. Any new revenue gained from closing tax loopholes, he said, should be put into lowering tax rates.

“The president got $650 billion of higher taxes on the American people on January the 1st,” Boehner said. “How much more does he want? When is the president going to address the spending side of this?”

Captain Rick’s closing thoughts …  will Washington avert shutdown again”?

I think most Americans are with me in expecting that Washington will pull off a circus act just prior to the closing curtain as it always manages to do. However, this showdown is not a done deal…especially concerning the defense appropriations. I think the Defense Department should endure the same cuts as as all others. I don’t think it needs special treatment. I believe many Americans believe the U.S. Defense Department could easily be cut without sacrificing America’s safety. I think many will agree that it is time for America to stop playing “Police of the World” …at American taxpayer expense.

I welcome your comments, likes and shares!

Info from previous reports:

Fiscal Cliff: https://atridim.wordpress.com/category/fiscal-cliff-course-101/

U.S. Debt Crisis: https://atridim.wordpress.com/category/u-s-debt-crisis/

U.S. Jobs: Stuck in neutral … with little hope things will pick up any time soon … unless…

Captain Rick: The January Jobs Report shows a continuing drop in new jobs created and a reality that job creation in America is stuck in neutral … or possibly reverse. 150,000 new jobs are needed to be created every month just to keep pace with population growth as represented by my red line in the chart below. Overall, the U.S. economy lost 8.8 million jobs during the Great Recession, and is still down about 3.2 million jobs from the labor market’s height in January 2008. The 5.6 million jobs that were created since the Great Recession also had to provide for the 9 million new job seekers entering the market since January 2008, due to population growth. Realistically, another 8.8 million jobs would have been needed to be added during the past few years to equal the American job scene of January 2008. At the current pace, those jobs will not be returning any time soon. Making things even worse is the fact that many of the jobs being added are relatively low paying in comparison to the jobs that were lost.

The U.S. economy added 157,000 jobs in January. That’s slower growth than in December, when employers hired 196,000 workers. Some call it “Groundhog Day in the labor market” and say “We’ve been waking up to this same story for four years.”

The biggest job sector gainers
In January, businesses added 166,000 jobs while federal, state and local governments cut 9,000. The government continued to cut jobs for the fourth month in a row.

Retail added 33,000 jobs, with about a third of those gains at clothing stores.

Construction firms added 28,000 jobs, reflecting a stronger housing market and rebuilding efforts after Superstorm Sandy.

Health care added 23,000 jobs. Most of those jobs were in ambulatory health care services, a category that includes doctors’ offices and outpatient care centers.

Manufacturers added only 4,000 jobs. The Labor Department noted that employment in this sector has changed little since July. Manufacturing once was the job sector that built and sustained America as a great country. America’s manufacturing jobs have mostly been lost to places like China because of lower wages and NO unions!

Unemployment Rate
The unemployment rate increased to 7.9% in January, as 12.3 million people were counted as unemployed.
The number of jobless Americans out of work at least six months was roughly unchanged at 4.7 million and that group represents only 38% of the unemployed.

A broader measure of the job market’s health called the underemployment rate — it includes the unemployed, discouraged Americans who have stopped looking for work and part-time workers who want full-time jobs — was unchanged last month at 14.4%.

Outlook for 2013 and beyond
Economists are expecting job growth to remain stalled during 2013.  Political uncertainty that is still hanging over employers, as they wait for Congress to hash out a budget deal. Amid an impasse between Democrats and Republicans, chances are growing that automatic spending cuts, which aim to reduce deficits by $1.2 trillion over a decade, could take effect starting in March. All of this will likely have significant negative impact on the job scene.

The best hope we have of seeing an improving job scene in the next few years is for the U.S. Congress to pass legislation to permanently solve the U.S. Debt Crisis, including working towards balancing the budget. Our nation can not continue living on deficit spending … money it does not have. That is a recipe for eventual total economic failure. While it’s continuing practice of ‘kicking the can down the road’ might prevent further erosion of jobs short term, it will most assuredly will set our nation up for a much larger recession and loss of jobs in a few years.

View prior reports on Jobs: https://atridim.wordpress.com/category/jobs/

U. S. Economy contracts: GDP dives 3% … Back in ‘Recession Zone’… First time since 2009 What’s ahead?

Captain Rick: Many economists were shocked by the magnitude of this drop in economic growth. I was surprised, but not shocked. Those following my reports know I have been forecasting a coming recession for some time. I caution that this is only the first of three GDP reports for the 4th quarter of 2012.  It won’t be until the end of March until the third and final GDP figure for the fourth quarter of 2012 is released. The final figure could be slightly higher or lower. Regardless of the final figure, the economic trend is not favorable. How Congress handles the very serious looming U.S. debt crisis, especially the portion of the Fiscal Cliff that was ‘kicked like a can down the road’ will play a roll in future economic growth. If Congress gets tough and addresses the debt crisis head on, I suspect it will present a deeper, temporary plunge into negative growth territory. If Congress continues to ‘kick the can down the road’, I suspect we will see less of a dive in GDP early on…but will set the stage for a much deeper dive in a year or two…possibly as deep or deeper than the ‘Great Recession’ of 2008-2009.

I see several troubling economic factors that parallel the times leading up to the ‘Great Recession’. The world stock markets are within 2% of the all time highs reached just prior to the stock market crash of 2008. Like then, I see no justifiable reason for the recent market rise. It looks to me like a bunch of gamblers in Vegas betting it all. The market is again inflating into a balloon ripe for explosion. Real estate prices have been climbing at a fast pace, as is real estate speculation…similar to that witnessed prior to the bursting of the real estate bubble, prior to the Great Recession. I can not predict how much farther things can go before a repeat of 2008 occurs…but I feel that a down slide is coming at some point soon. Much will have to do with congress’s handling of the debt crisis. The best thing they can do is ‘bite the bullet’ and suffer the consequences of balancing the budget early on. While that will most likely allow our GDP figures to become even worse than they are now, action soon might stave off an economic catastrophe a few years from now. I wish I could offer a more wholesome outlook for the American economy, but the fact remains…America is facing the most serious financial crisis in its history, one which has the potential to reduce America to a third world nation if not handled properly and soon.

U.S. House passes bill to suspend debt ceiling thru mid May … requires lawmakers to have pay withheld until budget is passed

Captain Rick: The House passed the “No Budget, No Pay Act,” a Republican bill that would effectively suspend the debt ceiling threat for several months.
The bill would let the Treasury Department borrow new money until mid-May so that obligations like Social Security and Medicare can be met.
In exchange, the legislation would require lawmakers in both chambers of Congress to pass a budget resolution or have their pay withheld until they do.

The vote was 285 to 144. The bill passed largely on the back of GOP support — 199 Republicans voted for it. But Democrats were needed, and 86 backed the measure.
Leading Senate Democrats said they would support the legislation because it takes the immediate threat of default off the table and divorces the debt ceiling from Republican demands for spending cuts.
President Obama will not oppose the bill if it reaches his desk, even though he would prefer a longer term debt ceiling increase.

Here’s how the bill would work:

The proposal would suspend the debt ceiling until May 18. Treasury could continue to borrow for payments that have to be made during the suspension period and nothing else.

The debt ceiling would then be restored at its current level of $16.394 trillion plus however much Treasury borrowed during the suspension period.

After May 18, Treasury likely could again use “extraordinary measures” to stave off the prospect of default for awhile, giving Congress extra time to raise the debt ceiling. Treasury could have “sufficient funds to meet all federal financial obligations through at least the end of July.

The bill would also open a path to a longer term increase: It would require the House and Senate to each agree by April 15 to a budget resolution for fiscal year 2014.

If the House and Senate don’t meet the April 15 deadline, lawmakers’ pay would be withheld until they pass a budget resolution or until the current Congress ends in January 2015, whichever comes first.
So it’s not that lawmakers won’t get paid if they miss the deadline. Their salaries would be held in escrow and paid out at some point later.

House Republicans, in coming up with the temporary debt ceiling solution, are in essence conceding that the debt ceiling fight is not their best shot at securing spending cuts and substantive deficit reduction.

Pending Deadlines:

1: Unless Congress acts by March, the pending sequester would trigger close to $1 trillion in defense and non-defense spending cuts.
2: If lawmakers fail to act by March 27, federal funding will expire entirely and the government would be shut down until lawmakers can find some way to agree on spending and taxes for the next year or at least another few months.

Captain Rick’s Words of Caution:

Many Americans are getting sick of hearing about all of the subject of the fiscal cliff, national debt and the debt ceiling. I hold little hope for our representatives in Washington to fix America’s fixation for debt anytime soon. The above measure only kicks the problem down the road for a few months. Soon, America needs to wake up to the reality that we can not keep spending like ‘there is no tomorrow’  and cutting taxes at the same time. Democrats need to get off of their ‘high horse’ and realize that American can not keep providing money and grants for everything that ‘sounds cool’. Republicans need to get off of their ‘high horse’ and realize that taxes need to be increased to cover the costs America is facing today. Hopefully, somewhere along the line they will come together and actually agree on a balanced budget…before its too late. America still has some time left to ‘get it right’ financially while our foreign friends are still willing to invest in America… but the ‘candle is growing dim’. The continual act by our government of ‘kicking the fiscal can down the road’ philosophy must end soon, or America will be eventually be faced with an unsolvable problem of how to cope being a third world country.

If you want to learn more about the serious financial problems that face America,

CLICK: Captain Rick’s Fiscal Cliff Course 101 … The course starts at the very bottom.

U.S. Economy: GDP Stalled at ‘break-even’

Captain Rick: Gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of the nation’s economic health, grew at an annual rate of 3.1% from July to September (Q3). That’s more than double the sluggish 1.3% rate in the second quarter, however it only measures even with the break-even line. 3% economic growth, represented by the red line in the chart below, is necessary to provide enough jobs and wages to keep pace with U.S. population growth. America has fallen short of the line in all but three quarters during the past four years. A GDP growth rate of 5% for 4 quarters is required to reduce the unemployment rate by 1%.

Consumer spending, which typically accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy, was the single largest driver of economic growth between July and September. U.S. households bought more motor vehicles and health care services, leading consumer spending to rise at a 1.6% annual rate in the quarter.

Government defense spending was another large driver, rising 12.9% in the third quarter. And home sales picked up, also contributing to economic growth.

Meanwhile, businesses built up their stockpile of goods and were hesitant to make new investments. Business spending contracted at a 1.8% annual rate in the quarter, dragging on overall economic growth. The largest cuts in business spending were on equipment and software.

Economists point to uncertainty about 2013 taxes and government spending cuts as the culprit that’s weighing on business investment decisions. The uncertainty generated by fiscal ineptitude has basically shut down investment spending. 

Economic Outlook: Overall, economic recovery remains sluggish. On average, the U.S. economy has grown about 2% a year for the last three years. Essentially this means the economy has actually going backwards at a rate of about 1%. Major portions of the fiscal cliff remain unresolved. The fiscal cliff and the pending debt ceiling will have to be addressed by about March 1 to prevent government default. The manner in which they are addressed will play a role in whether America dips into another recession next year.

U.S. Jobs: Stalled . . . 5 Million discouraged Workers hopelessly Unemployed

Captain Rick: The December Jobs Report marked the tenth month in a row of lackluster job creation. Only 155,000 jobs added, just above the red break-even line of enough jobs to keep pace with population growth. That leaves 4.8 million discouraged workers … hopelessly unemployed.

1.84 million jobs were created during 2012. That sounds huge, but it only broke even with the 1.8 million needed to keep pace with population growth.

U.S. Unemployment rate is inept and meaningless … the real unemployment rate is about 15%

I no longer report on the U.S. Labor Department unemployment percentage, which basically counts only those who are registered and receiving unemployment compensation. It does not include the other half of the workers that dropped off of the government’s ‘radar screen’ … the 4.8 million who have exhausted their unemployment compensation and remain discouraged and hopelessly unemployed. The Labor Department should abandon the ‘unemployment rate’ and replace it with a figure that is closer to reality. The actual unemployment rate, sometimes called the ‘underemployment rate’, stands at about 15%, among the highest since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The growing number of hopelessly unemployed is worrisome

Studies widely show the longer a person is unemployed, the weaker his or her chances are of getting a job. At some point, long-term unemployment can lead workers to become permanently detached from the labor force. That’s not good for the economy.

How long will it take to reduce unemployment to pre recession levels?

The Hamilton Project, an economic research arm of the Brookings Institution, publishes a “jobs gap” calculator that estimates just how long it will take to get back to pre recession levels, assuming the only major job market dropouts are Baby Boomers who are retiring. At the current rate of hiring, the Hamilton Project estimates it would take until 2025 to get back to a pre-recession job market. I must caution … that report does not consider the monumental fiscal challenge America faces with the upcoming Fiscal Cliff Sequester and Debt Ceiling issue. If President Obama and the U.S. Legislature continue to ‘kick the fiscal can down the road’, it could be far beyond 2025 before America recovers to pre recession unemployment levels, possibly never.

Caution for U.S. State Governors and City Managers

If you think America is on the road to recovery … THINK AGAIN !!! America is on a very serious fiscal downhill slide …headed for the ultimate ‘Fiscal Cliff’. Continue to spend money like there is ‘no tomorrow’ or prepare for coming reality by shoring up fiscal defenses.

Get Educated about the serious fiscal problems facing America … and the world

A great source: Captain Rick’s Fiscal Cliff Course 101 … The course starts at the very bottom.

Obama & Congress kick the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ can down the road for 60 days

Captain Rick: World stock markets jubilated as America was prevented from dropping over the ‘Fiscal Cliff. It was a political stunt pulled off by President Obama and Congress to kick the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ can down the road for 60 days.

The global stock market rally (which came short of a rebound to recent highs) will be short lived. In just 60 days the U.S. Congress will be forced to address the ‘Fiscal Cliff Sequester’ of automatic spending cuts and raising of the U.S. debt ceiling because of America’s supreme thirst for spending money it does not have.

So, for those who have not studied Captain Rick’s Fiscal Cliff Course 101 … have a glass of champagne and celebrate America’s continued fixation for spending money that has no revenue for support.

Geithner: U.S. to hit debt ceiling Monday + Captain Rick’s ‘Dream for America’

Captain Rick: Here we go again. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner warned Congress in a letter that U.S. borrowing will hit the debt ceiling on Monday, and that Treasury will begin using ‘extraordinary measures’ to prevent government spending from exceeding the legal limit of $16.394 trillion. On Monday, debt subject to the limit was just $95 billion below the $16.394 trillion debt ceiling. That allows for spending over $13 billion a day through next Monday. It makes my head spin thinking about how fast the U.S. spends money and that over $1 trillion of what it spends each year is borrowed money (deficit spending) that adds to the U.S. National Debt.

The extraordinary measures include suspending the reinvestment of federal workers’ retirement account contributions in short-term government bonds. All told, the extraordinary measures can create about $200 billion of headroom under the limit — normally about two months worth of borrowing.

If America begins going over the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ on Tuesday, January 1, as all indications point to now, $600 billion in annual spending cuts and tax revenue increases will kick in and slow the generation of debt to half speed. This would double the period of time to 4 months remaining before extraordinary measures would be exhausted.

After the extraordinary measures run out, Treasury won’t be able to pay all the country’s bills in full and on time. At that point, the United States will run the very real risk that it could default on some of its obligations, such as making interest payments on America’s National Debt which total a staggering $260 billion per year. This would have a severe negative impact on America’s credit rating which would have a ripple effect of making it more costly for the U.S. Treasury to borrow money. At some point foreign governments, like Japan and China, which hold large sums of American debt, would slow lending or even curtail it. The American economy would grind to a halt and be thrust into a deep recession, dragging all world economies along with it.

Other solutions could be to default on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other government program payments. We all can comprehend the immediate, massive, destructive effect that would have on society.

Thus, we can conclude that default of any kind  is not an acceptable solution. The only immediate solution will be to increase the national debt again. Those who have studied Captain Rick’s FISCAL CLIFF Course 101, know that its just a matter of time before raising the national debt ceiling will no longer be a workable option. This is why it is so important that the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ spending cuts and tax revenue increases take effect on January 1.

Captain Rick’s Dream for America

I find the manner in which the President and Republicans and Democrats in Congress are trading off fiscal ‘trinkets’, in an effort to fool America that they can come up with a better solution than the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ to solve America’s serious problem of thirst for debt … almost laughable.

The President and Congress should stop playing fiscal games. The current members of Congress should stay home on vacation for the rest of the year. A new slate of legislators will be sworn in on January 3, hopefully with a work ethic that is void of politics (I am holding my breath), and work towards raising the debt ceiling along with the creation of Fiscal Cliff 2 … another painful round of spending cuts and tax revenue increases that would finally balance America’s budget and eliminate deficit spending. Ideally, it would start on January 1, 2014, when the next raise of the national debt ceiling will most likely be required. Hopefully that would be the last need to raise the America’s National Debt Ceiling.

Perhaps Fiscal Cliff 3 could kick in on January 1, 2015 with another round of spending cuts and tax increases that would begin reducing America’s National Debt and its interest on the debt which will be well over $300 billion per year by then.

If America were to follow this painful fiscal road, our children and grandchildren could have a realistic chance to make a descent living and recapture some of the Great American Dream that kids growing up in America back in the 1950’s and 1960’s once had. I was one of them. They were great times that are ‘long gone’, but can be rekindled if we, the generations who helped create America’s fiscal ‘nightmare’, accept some sacrifices. I urge everyone in America to accept the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ with a ‘grain of salt’ as it becomes effective on January 1, 2013 and urge your legislative representatives to work towards achieving Fiscal Cliff 2.

View Captain Rick’s entire FISCAL CLIFF Course 101: https://atridim.wordpress.com/category/fiscal-cliff-course-101/