patrick.net

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_United_States_federal_budget

2012 Budget of the United States federal government
Submitted February 14, 2011
Submitted by Barack Obama
Submitted to 112th Congress
Total revenue $2.627 trillion (estimated)
Total expenditures $3.729 trillion (estimated)
Deficit $1.101 trillion (estimated)

From nytimes:
Deal at Last Minute Averts Shutdown; $38 Billion in Cuts to Spending This Year
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/us/politics/09fiscal.html?_r=1&hp

From me:

38b/3729b = 1 point 0 FUCKING percent (edit). Was this a major victory for the House? Was this worth vetoing? Remind me again why any of these assholes got elected???

shrekgrinch says

Uh, sorry..but EVERY case they decide not to hear falls under the category of ’something they just do not want to deal with’. Not my problem you have really poor reading comprehension skills there.

Come on shrek, are you bullshitting on purpose or do you really have such a limited understanding of our legal system that you would characterize the US Supreme Court’s choices in those terms.

And of course the shenanigans still stands, ah... sigh... one of the many points you will never address.

RayAmerica says

I thought the attackers on 9/11 came from Saudi Arabia?

Bingo! But Saudi Arabia is NEVER criticized in the US press. Seriously. Find me an example. Now why would that be?

There is a more suitable image to illustrate the relationship: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/04/obama_bows_down_to_saudi_king.html

We are addicted to Saudi drugs, if we whack our drug dealer we'll have to go cold turkey.

NOOOOPE!

How about criticized for systematically teaching hatred of all non-Muslims?
Bin Laden was a pure product of Saudi education. Sure, he hated them too, but not as much as he hated us.

Yeah, good point.

What a weird country. Run by the house of saud and their thousands spoiled brat princes who for the most part couldn't give a damn about Islam, but they have to pay tribute the the wahhabi clerics to keep power.

MarkInSF says

Criticized for what? It’s not like the Saudi government was involved in 9/11. Laden was an ENEMY of the Saudi regime post Desert Storm.

Perhaps they might be criticized just a little for being the biggest source of funding for terrorism for the last 30 years? Or perhaps for establishing and funding a world wide network of madras schools to teach islamic fundamentalism and hatred toward the west. Maybe just a little criticism you think? Wasn't one of the big reasons for going into Iraq and Afghanistan because they funded terrorists? Curious choices.

The house of saud will fall in the not to distant future. The demographics are unsupportable. Good riddance.

ChrisLA says

If they cared to fix the budget, they would get together cut the loopholes and lower taxes for the middle class. But thats not the case and never will be the case. Right now it’s just political games.

I for one think taxes should be set at what it takes to pay for government.

We don't need to "soak the rich", just tax everyone.

If we actually had to pay for our military adventures we'd get into a lot less of them, and if our taxes were broken down on our paychecks like our phone bill is that would be a very good thing.

The PTB don't do this because they know the game would be up.

Big-ticket items in the 2011 budget, with increases over 2007:

Defense $964.8B (+48%)
Welfare 283.8 (+58%)
Unemployment 134.8 (+284%)
Education 129.8 (+27%)
Transportation 94.5 (+30%)
Housing Assistance 69.4 (+75%)
Protection 60.7 (+47%)
Agriculture 32.8 (+41%)

Broken out into per-household numbers, that's

Defense $730/mo
Welfare $220/mo
Unemployment $100/mo
Education $100/mo
Transportation $70/mo
Housing Assistance $50/mo
Protection $45/mo
Agriculture $20/mo

So the big-ticket stuff is costing $1300/mo per household at the Federal level.

That's $7.50/hr from monthly wages just to break even.

Clearly we have a spending problem. But with corporate profits and cash-hoards, we probably need to start pushing taxation onto corporations more, to get them to pay more for the services they are consuming. All the above big-ticket items benefit corporations immensely so they should pay more for them, much more.

If I were King I'd cut military in half, covering 1/3 the deficit, and raise taxes on individuals to cover the other 1/3 and corporations for the last 1/3.

Corporations that don't like paying more taxes are welcome to move their operations elsewhere. If any actual capital is going unused as a result I'd nationalize it and show them what real state socialism looks like.

Troy says

If we actually had to pay for our military adventures we’d get into a lot less of them, and if our taxes were broken down on our paychecks like our phone bill is that would be a very good thing.

I think that is a brilliant idea, I've been thinking the same thing lately.

Why not simply break all the taxes down (like a phone bill) so that instead of a lump sum I get to see what every penny of it does. And overtime make programs live within their means or get cut. That would be beautiful.

Just to be clear I'm not advising soak the rich, (I don't subscribe to that). I'm simply saying it isn't fair that most of us get to pay taxes, and some get loopholes to not pay their share making the burden fall onto others.

thunder are you shorting anything specifically?

Regarding the actual spending agreement, letting the Republicans "win" this one is good I think.

Gives them some actual skin in the game for 2012.

If the economy bounces back, then cuts were good. If it doesn't, cuts were clearly bad.

The optics is pretty easy on this.

Of the hijackers on 9/11, all were from Saudi Arabia, with the exception of Fayez Banihammad, yet we attack Iraq & Afghanistan? Regarding Afghanistan, does anyone really know WHY we are there? Literally tens of thousands of innocent civilians (including children) have been killed, wounded and made into nomads because their villages and homes have been destroyed. Over 800 of our own troops have been killed. Not one army in history, beginning with Alexander the Great, has ever succeeded in Afghanistan. The CIA reports that there are only 200 al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Bin Laden is probably in southern Pakistan (if not already dead). Yet we not only remain in Afghanistan, but we are expanding our operations there … WHY??

I'm still choking on the day that I was going to buy Silver Wheaton $30 call options for a buck a piece. I was too tired and just went to bed and never bothered. Now that it's passed $45 I woulda turned my paycheck into a car. I'm going to start major profit taking on mining shares if Silver crosses $50.

Troy says

If the economy bounces back, then cuts were good. If it doesn’t, cuts were clearly bad.

The optics is pretty easy on this.

Right. Like they wouldn't put the entire right wing media and HUGE teabagger campaigns behind arguing that it was Obama's fault for his healthcare plan or changes in regulations for...whatever.

Wouldn't be surprised if there is a republican agenda right now (in some circles) that would like to take down the economy for exactly that reason. Take it down, blame Obama.

RayAmerica says

Of the hijackers on 9/11, all were from Saudi Arabia, with the exception of Fayez Banihammad,

I am not sure where you are getting your facts from Ray, oh... wait... I remember, you just make them up.

19 hijackers total:
Saudi = 15
UAE = 2 (FYI, Fayez Rashid Ahmad Banihammad, was one of these guys)
Lebanese = 1
Egyptian = 1

https://www.cia.gov/news-information/speeches-testimony/2002/DCI_18_June_testimony_new.pdf

RayAmerica says

Not one army in history, beginning with Alexander the Great, has ever succeeded in Afghanistan.

It depends on your definition of succeed. Actually Alexander did succeed in Afghanistan. He conquered them with a campaign from 330 to 327 BC and left an occupation in the area for several years. After his death the area became part of the empire of Seleucus Nicator. Dozens of rulers and empires have conquered Afghanistan over the last 2500 years. Like Alexander, when they died so did control of the country. Of course this conquest and reconquest is also true for almost every place in Asia and Europe so I guess pretty much everywhere in the old world could be called the graveyard of armies.

"Excuse me but when the government shuts down, what happens is that the Treasury and various laws determine what is ‘essential’ and what is ‘non-essential’ with the essential still provided and just the non-essential no longer provided. With me so far?"

A govt. shutdown resulting from the fialure to pass a budget is MUCH different from failing to raise the debt ceiling. In the case of the ceiling, if we don't raise it, the U.S. defaults on it's debt and cannot borrow any money. Spending would have to immediately be cut by over 40%. And the U.S. will lose it's AAA credit rating, which will result ina double dip worse than the first dip since interest rates will skyrocket.

I think it's the best time to buy and flip properties now.

I saw a lot of flippers making good money now, and I bought my primary home in 2010, even the price went down a little, but it doesn't matter to me. Because I am only paying $1550 per month include all the fees, after tax deduction, and principle, I am only paying $1000/month which is less than renting for sure. the rent in my area needs $1500 to $1800 for 3 bedroom and 2 baths.

Nathan says

I think it’s the best time to buy and flip properties now.

Enjoy the flipping. :)

Hit $42 last night. Pretty insane.

Back on topic.

Sarah Palin supports Trump's "birtherism".

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20052767-503544.html

In a Saturday interview on Fox News's Justice with Judge Jeanine, Palin stopped short of saying she believed the claims, but said "more power to" Trump if he wanted to use his considerable resources to look into the matter.

"He's not just throwing stones from the sidelines, he's digging in, he's paying for researchers to find out why President Obama would have spent $2 million to not show his birth certificate," Palin told host Jeanine Pirro.

"I think that he was born in Hawaii because there was the birth announcement put in the newspaper - but obviously if there's something there that the president doesn't want people to see on that birth certificate, that he's going to great lengths to make sure that it isn't shown, and that's kind of perplexing for a lot of people," she said.

Meanwhile, on ABC's "This Week" yesterday, White House senior adviser David Plouffe called Trump's recent claims "sideshow behavior" and said he had "zero chance" of being elected president.

"There may be a small part of the country that believes these things, but mainstream Americans think it's a sideshow," Plouffe said, of the birther issue. "And what they want our leaders to do is focus squarely on the issues right in front of us: how we're going to keep growing the economy...how we keep our people safe, how do we make sure we're going to win the future by focusing on things like education and innovation? So that's what they want us to focus on."

He added that he hoped Trump continued to do well in presidential straw polls.

"I saw Donald Trump kind of rising in some polls and given his behavior and spectacle the last couple of weeks, I hope he keeps on rising," Plouffe told said. "There is zero chance that Donald Trump would ever be hired by the American people to do this job."

In a recent interview with NBC News, a former Hawaiian state health official who twice reviewed Mr. Obama's birth certificate called the renewed discussion over the president's birthplace "ludicrous," and affirmed - for the third time - that that his original birth certificate was "real."

"It's kind of ludicrous at this point," said Dr. Chiyome Fukino, former director of Hawaii's Department of Health, told NBC in a phone interview.

Fukino said she has examined the president's "record of live birth" on multiple occasions. (The document circulated on the internet is Mr. Obama's "certificate of live birth," which is a shorter version of the original.) The birth certificate, she said, is kept in a bound volume in Hawaii's Department of Health, and features the signature of the doctor who delivered Mr. Obama.

If they joined forces, would it be Trump/Palin, or Palin/Trump?

Looks like Obama’s Birther strategy may pay off big time.
Here's my favorite scenario. Right after the Republican National Convention, hire Geraldo Rivera to open the file cabinets at the Hawaiian Department of Health and broadcast a live unveiling of the bound long form.

Vicente says

That's exactly how I saw Obama campaign posters.

I just saw that:

Silver Options Trader Bets $1 Million on Price Drop by July
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-11/silver-etf-options-trader-bets-1-million-on-37-slide-by-july.html

Anyone on this board, by chance?

CRB also had a bit on base metals this morning too:

Softer Commodity Prices?
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/04/softer-commodity-prices.html

The copper stockpiling is an old story at this point, though.

I wonder why Google maps can’t find the address. Is it a very new development? Maybe the address doesn’t officially exist yet.

They are a weird bunch. Sometimes I think CTA is mentally on another planet and are completely out of touch with reality.

But it’s only BLOCKS from a Million Dollar House!

The funny thing is the $3T of SSI/Medicare assets are counted as part of the debt ceiling since they are government bonds.

So either this debt is bona fide obligations of the US government or we're still 2-3 years away from hitting the statutory debt limit.

The idiots on the right can't have this both ways, tho of course they try.

Shrek ... If Mumia had killed a teacher (human being) instead of a cop (brutal non-human), I wonder if the teachers would be supporting the "union supporting, pro-education, civil rights hero?"

shrekgrinch says

Yeah, because Trump gets to drive this as an independent candidate while the Reps benefit w/o risk.

If the strategy is to appear to be the lesser of two crazies, then yes Republicans will benefit. They will not benefit if the angry Tea Party denizens vote Trump as a protest vote during the general election. There is ample evidence that Tea Party voters would rather cast a vote in protest giving Obama a second term than elect a moderate Republican. Obama's Presidency has been a great recruiter for the Tea Party.

Republicans can hope Trump drops out before the general election after rallying the base and reaping the rewards, but history shows differently. Trump is an egomaniac. I don't see him dropping out and endorsing a Republican candidate late in the game.

The best thing Democrats can do at this point is help Trump. Obama should cryptically allude to the fact that his "long" form has irregularities and may be incomplete. Birthers will seize on any little "evidence" like this to support their position.

The Republicans want to straddle the fence on this as a "safe" position. The issue will only become more polarized during the election. Fence sitters like Palin are indicating a willingness to take a side which shows that fence sitting Republicans will be destroyed in the primaries.

If I were Obama, I would order the Secret Service to safeguard Hawaiian birth records and keep them secret.