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To quote President Barack Obama, and Congressman Joe Wilson

Submitted by Roanman on Tue, 02/02/2010 - 12:47

 

 

 

The following are just some of the items within the President's proposed 2011 budget:

 

Provides a $3 billion increase in K-12 education programs, plus up to $1 billion in additional
funding if Congress successfully completes a fundamental overhaul of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Together, these measures would represent the largest
funding increase for ESEA programs ever requested.

Provides $1.35 billion to expand Race to the Top for school districts as well as States to carry
out systemic reform, and $500 million to continue the Investing in Innovation program to test,
validate, and scales up effective approaches to student learning. 

Increases the number, and improves the distribution of, effective teachers and principals,
by investing $950 million in competitive grants to States and school districts that build
comprehensive systems to recruit, prepare, retain, and reward effective teachers and
principals.

 Provides $429 million, the highest funding level ever, for competitive grants through the
Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.

Provides $50 million for a new “Healthy Food Financing Initiative” to bring grocery stores and
other healthy food retailers to underserved communities. 

Provides $7.4 billion for the National Science Foundation, an 8 percent increase over the
2010 enacted level, as part of the President’s Plan for Science and Innovation.

Drives the creation of the industries and jobs of the future by doubling funding for
multidisciplinary research targeted at next-generation information and biological technologies.

Provides $19 million in graduate and undergraduate fellowships and scholarships for a joint
initiative with the Department of Energy to inspire tens of thousands of American students to
pursue careers in science, engineering, and entrepreneurship related to clean energy.

Creates a new $766 million, cross-agency sustainability research effort focused on renewable
energy technologies and complex environmental- and climate-system processes.

Increases funding by 14 percent for a new consolidated program aimed at building the
science and technology workforce by recruiting and retaining undergraduate students from
under-represented groups. 

Adds $6 billion to NASA’s budget over five years and draws upon American ingenuity to
enable us to embark on an ambitious 21st Century program of human space exploration.

Provides $3.3 billion total for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds.
This will allow States and Tribes to initiate approximately 800 clean water and 500 drinking
water projects nationally, continuing a major Federal commitment to water infrastructure
investment.

Provides new funding to support the Administration’s commitment to mitigate climate change.

Provides grants for States and Tribes to administer delegated environmental programs at $1.3
billion, the highest level ever.

Builds on the historic past increase in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), for
a 20 percent total increase since 2009.

Invests over $8 billion in the Internal Revenue Service’s enforcement and modernization
programs, while continuing to drive innovation and responsiveness in taxpayer services. The
Budget supports significant new revenue-generating initiatives that will target critical areas of
non-compliance, and enhances a multi-year modernization strategy that will deliver a vastly
improved IRS within the next five years. 

Provides $4 billion for a new National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance Fund, which will
invest in high-value projects of regional or national significance.

Establishes a new $30 million Federal transit safety program to address critical needs.

Invests in modernizing the air traffic control system by increasing funding for NextGen by
more than 30 percent.

Helps communities to become more livable and sustainable by allocating $527 million for the
Department’s investments as part of the President’s multi-agency Partnership for Sustainable
Communities.

Sustains large-scale, multi-year support for high-speed rail, with $1 billion to fund promising
and transformative projects. 

Increases funding for the President’s Global Health Initiative, including increased efforts to
reduce mortality of mothers and children under five, avoid unintended pregnancies, and work
towards the elimination of some neglected tropical diseases. As part of this effort, the Budget
also expands support for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to prevent new HIV
infections while providing care and treatment to millions of people, and for the President’s
Malaria Initiative to dramatically reduce the prevalence of this disease.

Increases funding for the President’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative to help poor
countries improve the nutritional and income status of millions of people living in extreme
poverty and suffering from hunger by 2015.

Increases aid to Afghanistan and Pakistan to revitalize economic development and confront
the resurgence of the Taliban.

Continues to strengthen and expand local law enforcement agencies by providing $600 million
as part of the President’s multi-year commitment to fund the hiring of 50,000 additional police
officers nationwide.
 
Steps up the effort to combat financial fraud and protect public investments in our Nation’s
financial stability.
 
Expands targeted, place-based efforts to combat violent crime.
 
Strengthens efforts to combat violence against women by providing $538 million, an increase of 29 percent. 

 Stays on track to fully fund Land and Water Conservation Fund programs by 2014 by
providing nearly $620 million to acquire new lands for national parks, forests and refuges,
protect endangered species habitat, and promote outdoor recreation.

 

There is no nice way to say it.

 

 

 
 
 

 

To quote Fred Fenster

Submitted by Roanman on Mon, 02/01/2010 - 03:25

 

"This is very bad."

 

Among those things slowing down my posting lately, is the following quote by Richard Russell who has written and published the Dow Theory Letters for many years.  This quote is the first questioning I've seen from a serious, well respected, and heavily followed source of President Barack Obama's competance.  

Criticism of Obama, up until this instant have always been proceeded by qualifiers having to do with The President's obvious intelligence, communication skills and his seeming niceness, before fault finding on his specific policies could begin.  

 “I've been thinking about President Barack Obama and the nation's problems. My conclusion, in all honesty, is that Obama was unqualified for the job. Unlike Reagan, Obama had no deep-seated convictions about anything other than he would spread the wealth and go down in history as the people's hero.

 “When it comes to economics, I'm afraid that the President is lost. It's all so clear now that we can't spend ourselves back into prosperity, although some dour souls insist that we are spending ourselves into virtual bankruptcy. Even the American public understands that, but the prez doesn't.

“On economics, Obama is a rank amateur. He thought he could listen to a collection of name-economists and come up with the right answer. Unfortunately, Obama listened to the former head of the Princeton economics department an erudite young man named Ben S. Bernanke. Ben was considered to be our reigning top-expert on the Great Depression. Bernanke's solution to the whole mess was simple -- first save Wall Street and then release a massive amount of liquidity into the system. If there wasn't enough inflation in the system, then flood the system with liquidity and hopefully inflation will return. Anything to hold off dreaded deflation.” Richard Russell, Dow Theory Letters, 01-26-10

 

 Up until this instant, while it had been OK to question The President's competance at the bar over a beer, in the elevator, or over the telephone while sitting there with your feet on the desk,  no credible public source had felt the need, or found the stones, ... take your pick, ... to question the man's abilities.

 Now comes the following from The Wall Street Journal.

 

 
 
 
Now, ........ right here is where I get way slowed down.

My opinion and my fear is as follows; what we have here is a fairly smart, good looking, half black guy who has been blessed with a mostly free pass on the basis of all of the above, that has run into the first real adversity of his adult life as .........


PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.


If indeed this is the case, I think you'll agree with me.
 
 
"This is very bad."
 
 
My hope here is that rather than taking another pull on his own jar of cool aid, the President demonstrates sense enough to at least wonder if maybe he's part of the problem.
Which brings me to my dilemma, my strongly held opinion is in conflict with my hope for this country.  Do I restrain myself and in so doing avoid in the tiniest, most miniscule, nano and inconsequential way (let's face facts, the readership here is somewhere south of everybody anybody has ever heard of) the application of additional pressure on a guy I'm already afraid is gonna melt like a popsicle on an August sidewalk?
 
Orrrr ... ... ... ... do I take my shot, and pile on? 


In a nutshell who prevails, good Roany, or evil Roany?
 
 
 
I believe you have your answer.
 
 

 

To quote Frank Rich

Submitted by Roanman on Sun, 01/24/2010 - 08:12

 

Apologies in advance for being unkind.  But when Frank Rich is starting to get it, the whole world has to be on it.

 

“If the administration sticks to this trajectory, all bets are off for the political future of a president who rode into office blessed with more high hopes, good will and serious promise than any in modern memory. It’s time for him to stop deluding himself…  

“Obama’s plight has been unchanged for months. Neither in action nor in message is he in front of the anger roiling a country where high unemployment remains unchecked and spiraling foreclosures are demolishing the bedrock American dream of home ownership. The president is no longer seen as a savior but as a captive of the interests who ginned up the mess and still profit, hugely, from it. 

“That’s no place for any politician of any party or ideology to be…It’s a business culture where the rich and well-connected get richer while the employees, shareholders and customers get the shaft. And the conviction that the game is fixed is nonpartisan. If the tea party right and populist left agree on anything, it’s that big bailed-out banks have and will get away with murder while we pay the bill on credit cards — with ever-rising fees. 

“Politically, no other issue counts. In last weekend’s Washington Post/ABC News poll, 42 percent of Americans chose the economy as the country’s most pressing concern. Only 5 percent picked terrorism, and 2 percent Afghanistan 

“Does health care matter? Not as much as you’d think after this yearlong crusade. In the Post/ABC poll, the issue was second-tier — at 24 percent. Obama has blundered, not by positioning himself too far to the left but by landing nowhere — frittering away his political capital by being too vague, too slow and too deferential to Congress…Ask yourself this: All these months later, do you yet know what the health care plan means for your family’s bottom line, your taxes, your insurance?...  

“…few find this serene Harvard-trained lawyer credible when slinging populist rhetoric at ‘fat-cat’ bankers. His two principal economic policy makers are useless, if not counterproductive, surrogates. Timothy Geithner, the Treasury secretary, was probably fatally compromised from the moment his tax lapses surfaced; now he is stalked by the pileup of unanswered questions about the still-not-transparent machinations at the New York Fed

when he was knee-deep in the A.I.G. bailout. Lawrence Summers, the top administration economic guru, is a symbol of the Clinton-era deregulatory orgy that helped fuel the bubble. The White House clearly knows this duo is a political albatross…  

“…The Obama administration is so overstocked with Goldman Sachs-Robert Rubin alumni and so tainted by its back-room health care deals with pharmaceutical and insurance companies that conservative politicians, Brown included, can masquerade shamelessly as the populist alternative.” – Frank Rich, The New York Times, 01-23-10

 

OK, OK so he's still missing Freddie, Fannie, Barney Frank, Chuck Schumer et. al.  

But you gotta admit it, he's getting there.

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