This and That

You can tell the Democrats are back in control! The Democrats in NH are just getting started and look at just a couple of things they have proposed so far:

- They want a 15 cent per gallon increase in the state gasoline tax.

- The Democrats proposed an increase in the tax on home heating fuel.

- Governor Hassan’s proposed two-year budget counts on $80 million in revenue from a casino that doesn’t exist, is not in the planning and is not even legal at this time. Even if the legislature voted and legalized a casino in NH, casino license revenue would not start to flow in until late 2015 at the earliest.

The budget revenue estimates presented to her by the Ways and Means Committee at the end of 2012 assumed modest economic growth over the next two years. Even that growth is in question now since the federal government announced the GDP shrank in the end of 2012. GDP is predicted to shrink over the next two quarters also. A shrinking GDP or a recession would result in less revenue. ("Revenue" is the taxes collected by the state.)

Governor Hassan’s budget assumes even more revenue coming into the state coffers! If revenue estimates used to make the spending portion of the budget are wrong and too high (which is very likely in her budget) then emergency budget cuts need to be made in the second year of the budget. If the legislature doesn’t do these cuts, then they have to play the same smoke and mirrors game with the financial books that the Democrats did in 2009 - when they lied about balancing the budget. 

There was actually a huge deficit that the incoming Republican legislature had to work very hard to fix. Many very difficult decisions had to be made about what and where to cut the spending. Fortunately, the Republicans in the legislature were adult enough and responsible enough to do the job!

The Democrats in Washington D.C. aren’t doing any better. Absolutely nobody in their right mind can look at the unbelievable financial mess Congress has created and not see a spending problem. We have to borrow more than $0.43 of every $1.00 the Federal government spends!

This borrowing happens despite the fact that the government prints paper dollars constantly. Without any precious metal, like gold or silver, to back up the value of the paper money, these paper dollars only have the value of "the full faith and credit" of our government. Every dollar printed since 1971 has reduced the value of every dollar you have.

This printing causes inflation. People say everything "costs more" with inflation but in reality what is happening is that every dollar is worth less so you need to use more of them to buy the same things.

Keeping the printing and the borrowing in mind, how can Democrat legislators say things like "We don’t have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem" (Watch out, that means they are looking for more taxes.) or "What we have is a paying for problem"! They are either deliberately trying to mislead and deceive or they are insane.

Another item in the news that bothers me a lot is the attack at Benghazi. The more I have learned, the madder I am at the President and State Department. Why? A nasty combination of dereliction of duty, lack of responsibility and not following set and proper procedures.

Officials knew about the attack very shortly after it started. We know they were watching it as it was happening and that it went on for seven hours. An attack on an American diplomat is supposed to be reported to the president immediately. Leon Panetta says they waited until a previously scheduled briefing, 90 minutes after they knew about the attack, before telling the president. What do you think people would have thought if they had waited 90 minutes after they knew before telling FDR that Pearl Harbor had been bombed, or before telling Carter that the Embassy in Iran was under attack, or before telling W that the Twin Towers had been hit by an airplane? (He knew about it before the second plane hit.)

Panetta testified that they didn’t even re-brief the president the night of the attack. The president didn’t bother checking back with them after he was told either. Apparently he brushed it off and told them to take care of it. That shows the president’s lack of knowledge about his job! 

Our military needs a CBA – Cross Border Authorization – in order to take hostile military action that includes crossing an international border. The ONLY person with the power to issue a CBA is the president. Apparently he didn’t bother getting involved in anything to do with the attack until the photo opportunities involved with press releases and when the bodies were brought home!

We know our military inside the country, therefore not needing a CBA, were told not to go to help the ambassador and others being attacked, told to "stand down". Where did that order come from? I still don’t know.

Hillary Clinton previously said she took responsibility for Benghazi. Her testimony before Congress placed the blame on underlings and said they had been removed from their positions. Only in Washington D.C. politics can "removed from their positions" mean they changed their job title and desk location but kept their job, benefits, seniority and salary! Her "What difference does it make" rant was irrational. "A protest" or "guys out for a walk"? Really Madam Secretary? How about a well-planned, well-armed terrorist attack on American property (the consulate), an American diplomat (Ambassador Stevens) and other American citizens? How about a total lack of response from America to this attack? That makes a huge difference! It all makes me so mad I could scream!