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On Closing the White House
So the White House is closing its doors to the public today. Budget cuts related to the sequester are the blame.
The WH tours are closed after a decision by the Secret Service that it could not afford to maintain security. The savings for shuttering the WH comes to a measly $2m over the next seven months. I'm thinking this is a bullshit move by Obama; he's trying to get the public hostile toward Republicans. If the visitors to D.C. who are disappointed in not being able to visit the WH actually knew the facts, they would be mad at Obama, not the Republicans.
The Secret Service budget for 2013 is $1.67b. The $2m savings from closing the WH comes to 0.12% of the budget for the Secret Service, it's equal to 0.00005% of total spending. Closing the WH is a dumb way to save some money. Some other places where the $2m could have been absorbed:
Information Technology Portfolio - $200m
Transformation Initiative - $50m
Oregon and California Grant Lands - $113m
Payments to States in Lieu of Coal Fee Receipts - $128m
Lower Colorado River Basin Development Fund - $254m
Upper Colorado River Basin Fund - $92m
Surveys, Investigations, and Research - $1,075m
Operation of the National Park System - $3,000m
Mineral Leasing and Associated Payments - $2,144m
Salaries and Expenses, United States Attorneys - $1,972m
Capital and Debt Service Grants to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation - $958m
Grants for Specified Energy Property in Lieu of Tax Credits, Recovery Act - $3,671m
Foreign Military Financing Program - $6,344m
Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund - $850m
Assistance for Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia - $631m
Commodity Futures Trading Commission - $206m
Corporation for Public Broadcasting - $445m
Tennessee Valley Authority Fund - $445m
If you don't find anything on that list (there are thousands of other line items to choose from) consider saving the money to keep the WH open from these big accounts:
Military Procurement - $100B (50,000 Xs the cost of keeping the WH open
Military R&D - $87B (43,500 Xs the cost of keeping the WH open
The problem with the sequester is that it is a meataxe approach to cutting. It's a dumb way to go about the process. The Secret Service is facing cut backs, it will be forced to pare back $84m of expenses. But to have those cuts centered around the public access to the White House is just for show.
All of D.C. is going to look dumb before this is over. Obama might get the award for deliberately mismanaging the process. Let's hope so.
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Here's another wasteful program to cut: Eliminate social security and medicare (just trying to score points with Bruce).
I must have a terrible repudiation. I get this all the time. This was said in sarcasm, but there are some progressives who think I'm a demon.
I'm not a demon, and I don't want to end SS or Medicare. But I would love to see these things dialed back. They are overwhelming the economy. They create a huge burden for younger workers who will not get treated so well when it is their turn to retire.
We need a number of things to achieve this. A means Test has to part of the mix.
We also need some guts from Washington. Fat chance.
Washington_Monument_Syndrome at it's finest.
Thank you. I'm glad this bullshit has a simple evocative name.
The shack is going to need a complete overhaul after that brood evacs in less than 4 years....period.
Top to bottom....closed or opened...
Fuck Obama...chump patsy empty bought and paid for suited quasi-commie bullshitting douche....
Most of D.C. will have to be exorcised!!
Nice to see Canada's balls just dropped at the WBC
How about they just lock out lobbyists.
How much do the Obamas spend on taking
Their fucking vacations? I bet they fucking spend that in an hour with security etc!
$25 million for the first four years, but you expect Obama not to be lazy? Nigga please!!!
i went on a tour recently everything was great we need MORE tours
MOAR TOORS!
Obama is a foundationally stupid person.
He is literally a half-wit: he has attended some fancy institutions, but was only spoon fed leftist crap. He has no concept of private ownership or voluntary association and transaction.
He lacks the ability and curiosity to wonder if there may be ideas and practices outside of his collectivist (warped) worldview.
He is a very dangerous person.
Classic Affirmative Action. http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/08/obama_the_affirmative_action_president.html
+100
Bruce:
You are supporting the do nothing Congress with one side of your mouth. Any spending cut proposal receives many Howls of WHINING from many sides. At least someone cut something!
The other side of your mouth is talking a good approach to cutting more questionable stuff.
There is still a long way to go.
If Obama has the guts to cut something, He could do more!
Why don't you spread these spending cut ideas around? They have much bigger numbers towards the results that are so desperately needed.
-The Congressional Budget Office published a "Budget Options" series identifying more than
$100 billion in potential spending cuts;
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2009/10/50-examples-of-governme...
Wasteful Govt Spending – Source: Unconventional Wealth newsletter pitch
National Institute of Health (NIH) funded studies include:
$386,000 to study massaging rabbits: a study to determine proper massage duration time on rabbits;
$453,000 to study breathing during meditation: a study to determine how important breathing is during meditation;
$1,158,000 to study how to lose weight through meditation: a study to find out if meditation encourages weight loss;
$458,000 to study yoga & meditation therapy: a study to see if meditating and doing yoga helps you lose weight;
$438,625 to study behavioral effects of meditation: a study to see if meditation relaxes people when stressed out;
-General Services Administration spent $800,000 at a party hosted in Las Vegas with the goal of finding ways to streamline the administrative duties of government workers;
-They spent $350,000 to figure out if golfers needed bigger golf holes;
-Our government spent almost $1 million studying the sexual attraction of fruit flies;
spends about $1.5 billion a year on advertising. a third of the time, agencies spending this money don't get competitive bids;
The unfortunate truth is that our financial future is in the hands of the very people who've let our debt mushroom to over $16 trillion.
Worst of 2012 – Source: By David Zeiler, Associate Editor, Money Morning
-NASA spends $1 million a year on developing recipes for foods which astronauts could prepare while visiting Mars
More:
-The U.S. Navy bought 450,000 gallons of biofuels for $12 million—or almost $27 per gallon;
-Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida;
-A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled;
Waste Book 2012: Rep. Tom Coburn wants changes, too!
www.heritage.org/research/reports/2009/10/50-examples-of-government-wast...
Obama doesn't want to cut. He wants no cuts. So the rest of points are tl;dr
$453,000 to study breathing during meditation: a study to determine how important breathing is during meditation;
Hmm, I don't think they got enough money for that very difficult thing to determine, they should have received at least triple that IMO
Obama doesn't care about cuts or reforms. He is a shark who smells blood in the water and is going for the kill. Don't expect a predator to act with reason for the common good. Nothing I've seen form the man (actions, not words) has shown evidence of anything but self interest. As with any narcisist the American peoiple are but bit actors in his private movie about himself. He's going to make this worse for his advantage but I'm betting it gets out of control and bites him.
Politicians do respond from pressure from us. You don't seem very interested in cutting spending, either!
I've seen more cases of the pols ignoring public pressure than responding. But you're right, I no longer care about spending cuts since it's way too late for those to matter. Virtually all of discretionary spending is borrowed Fed funny money. No one has come up with a plan that even comes close to solving the deficit. Let them spend faster and faster until the wheels come off the bus.
I used to have conversations like this with delusional students all the time. "I'm a junior with a C+ GPA but I figure if I get all A+s from here on out and go an extra two quarters I can still get into Med School." The best thing for them would be to flunk a class right away so reality can set in and they make plans that don't involve Med School fantasies. If they went 2+ years without a single A+ why would they start aceing every class now? The US government will never solve the budget problems without a hard reset. The sooner they reboot the better.
Sigh, my optimism is deflating rapidly. Could you note one or two positions that would benefit from the reboot?
I'm already working on Gold and Silver.
Thanks.
The White House needed to be closed so that Obama could run buck naked through the corridors chasing the make interns.
"The White House needed to be closed so that Obama could run buck naked through the corridors chasing the make interns."
You mean, there should be ticket sales?
No free Viagra for Congressmen.
Next...
No Botox for Nancy.
Done.
Closing the WH to tours reminds me of the scene in Blazing Saddles just after Cleavon Little arrives to a not so friendly town ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upvZdVK913I
Love the part where David Huddleston reprises the part of John Boehner: "Hold it, men ... He's not bluffing!"
Skip to 3:15 if you want to see what the House Republicans will look like in a couple weeks.
Kicking off Ron Paul out of presidential race gave us the best lameass republican ever - Barry O'Bummer, interracial delight of Robert Ruben . Black Dildo for the Muppets and the best executor of the "NO DIME LEFT BEHIND" policies.
Who fucking cares ??? Ron Paul could have prevented all the movies which will be soon in the theater next to you.
This lefty €U-sucker, ( mememe ), with no power, no hope, no influence - just want you to keep buying PM, guns & ammo ... That's a hope & change for me. I'll be culled long b4 u notice anything.
Thx, ZH . I do live on your feed, no shit ....
The problem with the sequester is that it is a meataxe approach to cutting.
The actual problem is that it is not nearly a big enough meataxe. Cancel these dumbass tours altogether. Also, I'm sick of this "it's only 2m" idea. Fuck that. All non-esential government functions should be cut.
Have you ever taken the tour? Do you care about history? How would you feel if they closed the churches because that will be next.
Personally, I believe closing the White House to the children, who are there to see "The People's House" and where the great presidents whom they were made familiar with in school history classes, worked, slept, breathed, is because of fear. Fear of retaliation, that is. No one will be stepping on the grounds of the "People's House" but the dictator and who else he approves of.
As he should, Obama fears the people, as any dictator would. This is a president barracading himself from the nation who elected him.
Exactly. Anyone who thinks this is about saving money is off their rocker.
I'm buying popcorn futures in expectation of the real show... when the bond market goes rogue and the budget needs to be cut by 50%+ overnight... THAT will be hilarious.
It already been leaked that Obama has ORDERED people to make sure the ``sequester`` is as painful as possible so it looks like it's really the end of the world if ANYTHING is cut.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/5/email-tells-feds-make-seq...
In the internal email, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service official Charles Brown said he asked if he could try to spread out the sequester cuts in his region to minimize the impact, and he said he was told not to do anything that would lessen the dire impacts Congress had been warned of.
“We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be,” Mr. Brown, in the internal email, said his superiors told him.
Who'd want to visit that monument to thugs anyway?
I'm still scratching my head over why Customs and Border Patrol need to buy all that wool.
Could be that the denizens of the White House are growing increasingly worried about the public. After all it is much more difficult now to maintain a singular narrative for the peeps than it was before the internet.
"Public-University Costs Soar"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732453940457834275048077354...
"Tuition at public colleges jumped last year by a record amount as state governments slashed school funding, the latest sign of strain in the U.S. higher-education sector.
The average amount that students at public colleges paid in tuition, after state and institutional grants and scholarships, climbed 8.3% last year, the biggest jump on record, according to a report based on data from all public institutions in all 50 states to be released Wednesday by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. Median tuition rose 4.5%."
What percentage goes to administrators compared to those doing the actual teaching or contract work that keeps things running? Inquiring minds want to know. Why, with all the electronic technology we now have, does it cost so much more to manage these people compared to 20 years ago? This highlights the fundamental problem everywhere. Grossly overpaid "leadership" that are corrupt as hell.
It's the Baby Boomers. They vote themselves big raises and pensions. Then they have to hike the tuition costs. Problem is that there are 30 million fewer GenX coming along to take up the ponzi.
Sorry about that for ya, Bitchez.
You could say that about many other positions of power.
But in any case, if prices go up and IF enrolment remains high or steady, where does the money for study come from?
Hold up, there. A couple guards for some silly tourists walking around costs 2 mil?
Where do I sign up for that gig?
So I guess the place is unguarded now?
Hmmmmmm.
Supposedly it was the OT that was the problem.
So close an hour early?
If "losing" WH tours is the cost of saving $XX billion in sequestration, that sounds like a deal to me....
What else can we "lose"? How about DOEs (both), DHS, DH&HS, BATF, SEC (toothless, useless), about 1/3 of DOD, .....?
Here's an idea: cut DHS by 90%.
I agree, and then roll the 1.7 billion rounds of ammo they have purchased back into the public supply, they have tripled the price of ammo if you can find it!
Check out the sports dept at Walmart if you don;t believe me!
110%, just in case we missed something?
At this point in time,who the hell would visit that place is beyond me.Just go to to Wall St and various banking HQ's and bow to your real controllers.
He's bugging out. Be prepared for anything.
I think you're right. The Fucker's lost a couple of rounds. He can't deal with that.
http://www.hourofthetime.com/bcmp3/293A.mp3
I put up a comment a couple of weeks ago about the Washington Monument Effect.
They always do this shit. Any cuts are funneled into National Parks, Health & Safety, Aviation, Border Control. The scum in Washington really think we a stupid enough not to see through that, but they always over play their hand. Go South Dakota on their asses.