Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:56:38 -0700WeeblyWed, 22 Feb 2012 09:16:39 -0700http://www.konolaforcolorado.com/1/post/2012/02/cutting-the-deficit.htmlTo hear Republicans talk, the Obama budget does nothing to cut waste or reduce the deficit, so I thought we’d look at the section titled “CUTTING WASTE, REDUCING THE DEFICIT, AND ASKING ALL TO PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE” today.

Not surprising, the opening paragraph is a campaign focused diatribe: “To construct an economy that is built to last and creates good jobs that pay well for genera­tions to come, it will take making investments in education, innovation, and infrastructure so that our entrepreneurs, scientists, and workers have the tools they need to succeed. To pay for those investments and free our economy from the bur­den of historic deficits and growing debt, we need to change how Washington does business, and restore responsibility for what we spend and ac­countability for how we spend it. For too long, Washington has spent money without identify­ing a way to pay for it. Indeed, the cost of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts as well as the Medicare prescription drug benefit passed in the last ad­ministration contributed significantly to turning the surpluses of the 1990s into the record defi­cits of the following decade. The financial crisis and recession exacerbated our fiscal situation as revenue decreased and automatic Government outlays increased to counter the recession and cushion its impact. The result was that, upon taking office, the President faced an annual defi­cit of $1.3 trillion, or 9.2 percent of GDP, and a 10-year deficit of more than $8 trillion—and this figure grew even larger as the depth of the re­cession became clear. While the need to jump-start our economy through the Recovery Act and other measures added to the short-term deficit, these critical measures were temporary and did not have significant deficit effects beyond the recession.”

The budget document, in a section titled “Making Tough Choices to Restore Fiscal Discipline” lays out several proposals and guiding principles:

Reduce Discretionary Spending:  Obama expresses his intent to work within the guidelines contained within the bill passed in 2012 that defined budget cuts in order to get a cap to the debt limit passed.

Cut or Consolidate Programs: “In each of his first two bud­gets, the President put forward more than 120 terminations, reductions, and savings totaling approximately $20 billion in each year. In 2012, the Budget proposed more than 200 terminations, reductions, and savings, totaling approximately $30 billion in savings. This year, the Administra­tion is proposing cuts and consolidations across the Government in order to live within the caps established by the BCA. To achieve these savings, we went through the Budget carefully to identify programs that were either ineffective, duplica­tive, or outdated and thus needed to be cut or consolidated”

Implement the New Defense Strategy: “The overall defense budget, including overseas contingency operations reductions, will be down by 5 percent from the 2012 enacted level.”

Establish a Budget Cap on Overseas Con­tingency Operations (OCO) Spending: “…the BCA did not limit OCO funding. Leaving OCO funding un­constrained could allow future Administrations and Congresses to use it as a convenient vehicle to evade the fiscal discipline that the BCA caps require elsewhere in the Budget. …From 2013 through 2021, the Budget limits OCO appropriations to $450 billion.”

Require the Financial Services Industry to Pay Back Taxpayers: The Administration is calling for a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee on the largest financial institutions to fully com­pensate taxpayers for the extraordinary support they provided to the financial sector, while dis­couraging excessive risk-taking. …The fee will be restricted to financial firms with assets over $50 billion. The Administration’s Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee meets the statutory requirement contained in the TARP legislation that requires the President to propose a way for the financial sector to pay back taxpayers so that not one penny of the Government’s TARP-related debt is passed on to the next generation. …This fee will reduce the deficit by $61 billion over the first 10 years.”

Restrain Increases in Federal Civilian Worker Pay: On his first day in office, the President froze salaries for all senior political appointees at the White House. In 2010, the President eliminated bonuses for all po­litical appointees across the Administration and last year cut back on performance awards to all other employees. Starting in 2011, the President has proposed and the Congress enacted a two-year pay freeze for all civilian Federal workers, which has saved approximately $3 billion and is projected to save more than $60 billion over the next 10 years.”

Reform Federal Civilian Worker Retire­ment: “In order to make reasonable changes to Federal worker retirement, while maintaining the ability to attract and retain highly qualified individuals, the Administration proposes to in­crease the employee contribution toward accru­ing retirement costs by 1.2 percent over three years beginning in 2013.”

Modernize Federal Personnel Policies: “the Administration recommends that the Congress establish a Commission on Federal Public Ser­vice Reform comprised of Members of Congress, representatives from the President’s Labor-Man­agement Council, members of the private sector, and academic experts. The Commission would de­velop recommendations on reforms to modernize Federal personnel policies and practices within fiscal constraints. Such reforms could include but would not be limited to compensation, staff devel­opment and mobility, and personnel performance and motivation.”

We’ll review the balance of this section in our next budget blog.  As a preview of coming attractions, the next section in the document is titled “Taking Responsibility for Long-TermChallenges to Our Fiscal Health” “…the President put forward hundreds of billions of dollars in savings over 10 years in mandatory programs as well as guidelines to generate $1.5 trillion in revenue from tax reform. … the President’s Budget includes $517 billion in mandatory savings over the next 10 years and a plan for tax reform to raise more than $1.5 trillion.” Proposals include:

Find Savings in the Agricultural Sector.

Better Align Federal Worker and Military Retirement Programs.

Reform the Aviation Passenger Security Fee to Reflect the Costs of Aviation Secu­rity More Accurately.

Share Payments More Equitably for Air Traffic Services.

Provide Postal Service Financial Relief and Undertake Reform.

Strengthen the Safety Net for Workers’ Retirement Benefits.

Restore the Solvency and Financial Integ­rity of the Unemployment Insurance System by Helping Employers Now and Restoring State Fiscal Responsibility.

Reform Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) Payments.

Provide a Better Return to Taxpayers from Mineral Development.

 Homework:

White House Budget
]]>Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:00:46 -0700http://www.konolaforcolorado.com/1/post/2012/02/meanwhile-back-at-the-budget.htmlI’ve spent a few days ranting and raving about the war on women and local political candidates, but I promised a look at the budget presented to congress by President Obama. I promised a summary, with opinion, of each section. The President may be proposing another budget before we get this project done at the rate we are going!

By the way, we are not taking this in the order that it was presented. I can’t help myself, some things interest me more than others, so today we are looking at Department of Energy, which runs from page 105 to 109.

For controversial starters, this is one section of the budget that is proposed at a higher level than was the 2012 budget, up 3.2% to $27.2 billion. “In light of the tight discre­tionary spending caps, this increase in funding is significant and a testament to the importance of innovation and clean energy to the country’s eco­nomic future.” The argument is that if we don’t invest in the energy of the future, we won’t have much of a future. The oil and gas industry will be howling about the focus of this budget because it eliminates $4-billion in “inefficient and outdated” fossil fuel subsidies, but provides subsidies for clean energy and “advanced manufacturing.” 

Now let’s get into the weeds…

Obama’s narrative begins with a mission statement for the Department of Energy: “The Department of Energy (DOE) is charged with advancing the national, economic, and energy security of the United States; promoting scientific and technological innovation in support of that mission; maintaining the Nation’s nuclear weapons and reducing nuclear dangers; and en­suring the environmental cleanup of the national nuclear weapons complex.”

$2.3-billion is directed to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). “Within EERE, the Budget increases funding by nearly 80 percent for energy efficiency activities to improve the energy productivity and competitiveness of our industries and businesses. “

 $310 million is directed to the SunShot Initiative, with a goal of making solar energy cost-competitive without subsidies by the end of the decade.

 $95 million for wind energy, including off-shore wind technologies.

 $65 million for geothermal energy and enhanced geo­thermal systems.

$350 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, a program that funding “transformative” energy research.

“Fossil energy” still gets $421 million, which includes $12 million to improve technologies in developing natural gas. “Specifically, DOE, in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Geological Survey, will focus on understanding and reducing the environmental, health, and safety risks of natural gas and oil production from hydraulic fracturing in shale and other geologic formations.”

$290 mil­lion for R&D on innovative manufacturing processes and “advanced industrial materials.” “The Budget also continues to support the development of competitive new manufacturing processes for advanced vehicles, biofuels, solar energy, and other new clean energy technology, to help ensure that the technologies invented here are manufactured here.”

$5-billion to the Office of Science for long range R & D to keep America competitive. This funding supports research to understand the molecular structure of materi­als and the processes of chemical reactions.

The budget document then goes into how it will cut some spending to pay for the new spending. It did my heart good to read, “As we continue to pursue clean energy technologies that will support future economic growth, we should not devote scarce resources to subsidizing the use of fossil fuels produced by some of the largest, most profitable companies in the world. That is why the Budget eliminates in­efficient fossil fuel subsidies that impede invest­ment in clean energy sources and undermine ef­forts to address the threat of climate change.”

And for the consumer: “The Admin­istration continues to call on the Congress to pass the HomeStar bill, or other mandatory funding legislation aimed at creating jobs by encouraging Americans to invest in energy saving home im­provements.”

For the small business, “Through the Federal Energy Management Program, DOE will help other Federal agencies improve the energy efficiency of all Federal build­ings (representing over 3 billion square feet) with agencies’ total investment to exceed $2 billion through performance-based contracts over the next two years, all at no net cost to the taxpayer. This is achieved through contracts that provide enough savings in energy to more than pay for the investments.”

For national security:

“The Administration pro­poses $7.6 billion for Weapons Activities, an in­crease of $363 million or 5 percent above the 2012 enacted level, to maintain a safe, secure, and ef­fective nuclear deterrent as described in the Ad­ministration’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) of 2010.”

“$1.1 billion, a $9 million increase above the 2012 enacted level, to support work on naval reactors, including continued operational support of nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers, and reactor development for a replacement to the OHIO class ballistic missile submarine.”

“The Budget includes $5.65 billion to ensure our Nation’s legacy of nuclear wastes from the production of weapons during the Cold War are processed, secured, and safely disposed of in a timely manner. …The program’s cleanup actions include removing radioactive wastes from underground storage tanks, decontaminating and decommissioning old production facilities, and in­stalling groundwater monitoring wells primarily at sites in Washington, South Carolina, Idaho, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and New Mexico.”

“The Budget includes $2.5 billion, a $163 million or 7 percent increase above the 2012 enacted level, which reflects completion of accelerated efforts to secure vulnerable nucle­ar materials within four years,”

Anyone actually reading this section of the budget will have no doubt that this president is looking toward a future that is cleaner and safer for all Americans. I’d like to see less money going into nuclear weapons, but understand that it is necessary as a deterrent.  I’m hoping that the focus on small reactors might result in a small reactor design that would eliminate the kinds of threats posed by large reactor melt-downs. I applaud the president for taking on the oil and gas industry’s fossil fuel tax loopholes, but worry a bit about continued investment in fracking—although there has been industry interest in developing and promoting green frack fluids.

]]>Sun, 19 Feb 2012 07:49:56 -0700http://www.konolaforcolorado.com/1/post/2012/02/note-to-sal-pace.htmlYesterday I attended an event to raise money for Sal Pace, the 3rd District’s Democratic candidate. Sal keeps improving as a candidate, but he is still stumbling on occasion.

One example, a few days ago PBS ran a story about health care in the U.S. Because Grand Junction has a very unique health care system, it has been receiving national attention for years. It has even drawn President Obama to town. Dr. Michael Pramenko, who has been an advisor to Obama, and several other locals were featured in the television production. Given our national prominence, one would think that the candidate who is seeking to represent us would know something about our local system.

When mentioning health care, Pace attempted to compare Grand Junction with his hometown of Pueblo. You could feel the room atmosphere change when he said that in Pueblo you see billboards advertising hospitals all over town because there were two hospitals competing for business. He said that because Grand Junction has only one hospital, we don’t see that here.  For the record there are three hospitals in Grand Junction: Community Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital, and the V.A. medical center. We frequently see both billboards and television advertising for the two private hospitals.

I had the privilege of driving an 85 year old man home from the event because he no longer drives. This is no ordinary 85 year old man. He has taught at university hospitals for years. In fact he is still on the teaching staff at a hospital in Chicago—one affiliated with a major university. He has been an executive in a company that makes medical implements. He knows medicine and the problems facing the health care industry. He said that he left a rather nice check for Pace, but that someone needs to get to Pace to tell him to dig a bit deeper into the things he is talking about.  The good doctor said that I should “sell” myself to Pace for that purpose. So, Victor, this note to Sal is for you.

The good news is that Pace noted several times that he is a Catholic, but is able to separate his religious beliefs from public policy. When pressed on that point, he said that he would call himself Pro-Choice. He got a lot of applause from the women in the room when he said that. John Salazar could never bring himself to say in public that he was Pro-Choice. A lot of women, who had previously supported Salazar, dropped their support for him in 2010 because he wouldn’t stand up for women’s issues.

]]>Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:01:08 -0700http://www.konolaforcolorado.com/1/post/2012/02/another-battle-in-the-gop-war-on-women.htmlFirst the GOP supports a bunch of dotty old men who know nothing about human sexuality because of an obscene vow of chastity, often resulting in pedophilia. Now they don’t care if women are victims of violence. I swear the GOP has fallen off a cliff!

Even though I am a Democrat, I think it is important for minority voices to be heard. I think it is important for all views of an issue to be aired in the public forum. We need more than one political party for that to happen.  I want the GOP to be a worthy adversary, not the clown show it is rapidly becoming.

The latest suicide attempt by the GOP was to allow the extension of the Violence Against Women to pass out of the Senate Judiciary committee without any GOP support.  This bill has enjoyed bipartisan support since it was first introduced by now Vice President Joe Biden .

A quote from the linked article: “The Republican-led objections are starting to sound a lot like those swirling around the birth-control mandate. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) is leading the charge against reauthorization over provisions that offer protections to domestic abuse victims that happen to be LGBT or undocumented immigrants.”

So now they are pissing away the votes of women, Latinos, and the LGBT community. I guess only uneducated, illiterate, angry white men need apply to be members of the GOP.

Homework:

GOP Oppose Violence Against Women Act

They Are Against Protecting Native American Women Too

Wikipedia History of the Act ]]>Fri, 17 Feb 2012 05:34:34 -0700http://www.konolaforcolorado.com/1/post/2012/02/we-are-woman-hear-us-roar.htmlI got a kick out of Lawrence O’Donnell last night when he called the latest assault on women political suicide. The GOP is busy trying to spin their attack on women and contraception as an attack on religion. This woman isn’t buying it. Old white men, who are completely out of touch with the modern woman, are busy trying to tell us what to do with our own bodies. They have an antiquated vision of women—one where father knows best, and the little lady needs guidance because she can’t be trusted to think for herself.

We are woman, hear us roar.

A friend of mine is planning a get together of women to discuss reelecting President Obama. She said that people she invited to this event, to take place next week, have been calling and asking if they could bring their daughters and friends. Women are organizing. Women are strong. Get out of our way. Get your “small government” out of our bedrooms.

Yesterday Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, convened a hearing to talk about women’s health, but he banned all female witnesses. Women serving on the committee walked out in protest, a first for Eleanor Holmes Norton who has been in the House for over 20 years.  Before the clock struck Midnight the Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi had sent out an E-mail to Democrats. The full text follows:

We almost couldn’t believe it.  Today, at a House Oversight Committee hearing, House Republicans convened a panel on denying access to birth control converge with five men and no women.  As my colleague Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney asked, where are the women?

Join me in our call to Speaker Boehner, Eric Cantor, Chairman Issa and all House Republicans to demand that women be brought to the table when discussing women’s health issues. Help us gather 50,000 signatures before Congress heads home tomorrow.

Sign the petition >>

Thank you for standing up for what’s right and joining our fight.

It is apparent that Republican men have forgotten that more women than men vote in every election. We aren’t going to be voting for a bunch of male chauvinist pigs. As of this writing almost 25,000 people have signed Nancy’s petition. That happened over night while most women were sleeping.

Homework

Story About Democrats Walking Out of Issa Hearing

Link to Petition ]]>Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:48:19 -0700http://www.konolaforcolorado.com/1/post/2012/02/defense-budget-2013.htmlSince I expect the Obama defense budget to be one of the things most attacked by Republicans I decided it would be the next section of the Budget that I’d read. It is jumping ahead quite a bit, but it will satisfy both my curiosity and provide some context for my readers.  This section is eight pages long, starting at page 81.

The defense department budget starts by setting out its goals: decreasing 2013 budget by 1% from the 2012 budget, implement the President’s new defense strategy, and put the department on the path to seeing $486.9 billion in savings by 2021.

The budget delivers a political speech that cites leaving Iraq, decimating Al Qaida, and winding down in Afghanistan as opportunities to focus on getting our fiscal house in order.  As part of putting the house in order, Obama ordered the Department of Defense to do an internal review designed to align the budget with a clear strategy focused on our national interests.

The strategy includes:

·         Strengthening our presence in the Asia Pacific region.

·         Continuing vigilance in the Middle East.

·         Participating as a “force multiplier” in organizations like NATO.

·         Getting rid of Cold War Era systems.

·         Investing in Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance.

·         Supporting counterterrorism and countering Weapons of Mass Destruction. (“We will also maintain the ability to operate in environments where adversaries try to deny us access.”)

·         Giving priority to “wounded warriors, service members’ mental health, and the well-being of military families.”

Cost savings is discussed: ” DOD will spend $486.9 billion less than was planned in last year’s Budget. The Department will realize these savings through targeted reductions in force structure and mod­ernization; reprioritization of key missions and the requirements that support them; and contin­ued reforms and efficiencies in acquisition, man­agement, and other business practices.”

Specific Budget items:

·         $176.2 billion to support the operations, training and maintenance of troops.

·         $3.7 billion to fund unmanned air surveillance systems, such as the Predator and Reaper,

·         $2 billion for upgrading tactical vehicles including the newest and most effective version of armor protection.

·         $4.1 billion for the Virginia class submarine program.

·         “The Budget sustains and enhances all aspects of DOD’s cybersecurity capabilities.” (No dollar amount is specified.)

·         “The Budget helps to counter the challenge of weapons of mass de­struction by funding improved infrastructure and modernization of detection, neutralization, and treatment capabilities.” (No specified amount.)

·         “The Budget helps to counter the challenge of weapons of mass de­struction by funding improved infrastructure and modernization of detection, neutralization, and treatment capabilities.” (No specified amount.)

·         “Modernizing the Nation’s nuclear weapons com­plex and supporting the goals of the Nuclear Pos­ture Review (NPR)” (No specified amount, budget shared with National Nuclear Security Administration.)

·         “Maintain continuous at-sea deployments of ballistic missile submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as well as the ability to surge additional submarines during cri­ses; procure the lead ship for the OHIO Replace­ment program in 2021; sustain the Air Force’s Minuteman III missile through 2030; and mod­ernize the heavy bomber force so it can serve for the indefinite future.” (No specified amount.)

·         ” $9.7 billion for ballistic missile defense.”

The budget then goes into how this administration will support service members and their families:

·         “1.7 percent increase to basic pay in calendar year 2013, the full increase authorized by current law.”

·         “$48.7 billion for the DOD Unified Medical Budget to support the Military Health System, which provides medical care for over 9.6 million eligible beneficiaries.”

·         “Key Administration priorities include enhancing the well-being and psychological health of military families, ensuring excellence in military children’s education, developing career and educational opportunities for military spouses, and ensuring child care availability and quality for the Armed Forces.”

·         “$128 million for Arlington National Cemetery improve­ments. These funds will be combined with the $46 million requested directly for Arlington National Cemetery.”

Looking to the future, the President proposes investments in research and development:

·         “$69.4 billion for research, development, test, and evaluation, in­cluding $11.9 billion for early-stage science and technology programs.”

·         “The funding proposed in the Budget will be awarded through competi­tive processes, with experts guiding the choices of research topics to be undertaken, and reviewing and selecting projects for funding based on pro­posals submitted by universities, non-profit orga­nizations, for-profit companies, and Government laboratories.”

The final section is all about cuts and reforms to streamline the military:

·         “Integrates active and reserve forces to provide a smaller but more agile military force.”

·         “Eliminate several Bri­gade Combat Teams.”

·         Eliminates “130 transport air­craft and seven cruisers, over the next five years.”

·         Requests “authority for DOD to commence two additional rounds of base realignment and closure (BRAC)”

·         “Introduces new TRICARE copays and fees to help constrain the cost of healthcare.”

·         “Modifies pharmacy copays to encourage the use of less expensive mail-order and military treatment facility pharmacies.”

·         Implements “modest annual fees for TRICARE beneficiaries over age 65 when they transition to Medicare coverage.”

·         “Reforms will reduce DOD costs over five years by an estimated $12.9 billion in discretionary funding and $4.7 billion in mandatory savings in the Medicare-Eligible Retiree Health Care Fund.”

·         “The Budget also includes the Administration’s proposal for a Military Retirement Moderniza­tion Commission, which, if enacted, will recom­mend improvements to the military retirement system.”

Regarding weapons systems:

·         The Joint Strike Fighter program will continue at a reduced level.

·         The C-27 airlift aircraft, High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle Recapi­talization, and a new weather satellite will be eliminated.

·         The Navy’s e Joint High Speed Vessel program will be “truncated” after buying 10 ships.

Regarding Procurement:

·         The Budget requests $280 billion for DOD contracts in 2013.

·         “DOD is: 1) decreasing the use of high-risk contracts based on time-and-materials and labor-hours; 2) con­tinuing to develop the acquisition workforce to provide needed oversight; 3) eliminating or re­structuring lower-priority acquisitions; 4) reduc­ing contract spending on management support services; 5) taking full advantage of contract ve­hicles that reflect the Government’s buying lever­age; 6) increasing the use of strategic sourcing; 7) increasing small business participation; and 8) improving financial management systems.”

·         “DOD will have Statements of Budgetary Resources for general funds “audit ready” by 2014.”

·         “The Budget includes approximately $1 billion for energy conservation investments.”

·         “$150 million for the Energy Conserva­tion Investment Program, which improves the energy efficiency of DOD facilities worldwide.”

·         “$32 million … for the Instal­lation Energy Test Bed Program to demonstrate new energy technologies to reduce risk, overcome barriers to deployment, and facilitate wide-scale commercialization.”

I don’t feel any less safe after reading this budget. Personally, I‘d like to see more cuts.

]]>Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:11:19 -0700http://www.konolaforcolorado.com/1/post/2012/02/2013-white-house-budget.htmlYesterday I opined that the President’s Budget was being bashed by people who had not read it. Given that the comments came within an hour of the document being delivered to congress, I did not believe that any of the Republican leadership had actually read the document. I still believe that. It is linked below, and is 256 pages long. Let’s just say it takes a minute to read and understand one page—that is 256 minutes, or 4.26 hours.

I haven’t read the entire document yet, either. But, I will. Just as I read the entire jobs bill, and reported my thoughts here, I’ll be reading the entire budget and sharing, both here and in my Grand Junction Free Press column, my opinion.

For starters, there are 30 sections to the budget. It starts with an executive summary, moves to a section for each governmental agency, and then ends with tables and a list of people who worked on the budget. My guess is that all of the comments from Canter and Boehner were based on reading the executive summary and taking a quick look at the tables.

That is also how we will begin.

Executive Summary:

Clearly this is an election year budget, and we see the theme of Obama’s campaign for reelection laid out in the opening words:  “America was built on the idea that anyone who is willing to work hard and play by the rules, can make it if they try—no matter where they started out. By giving every American a fair shot, asking everyone to do their fair share, and ensuring that everyone played by the same rules, we built the great American middle class and made our country a model for the world.”

The document then summarizes the environment that has the middle class doubting the American Dream.  Despite having good universities, productive workers, and innovative companies, the middle class has seen their share of the economy shrink, and then fall off a cliff in 2008. Contributors to the crash were stagnant wages, financial villains structuring bad financial products, and a desperate middle class using their home equity as an ATM.  It should come as no surprise that legislators who are defending the top 1% and fighting any regulation of the financial institutions (who make money without producing anything other than foreclosures and bankruptcies for middle class families) might want to paint a different picture.

The document says saving the middle class and the American Dream is “the defining issue of our time.”

“The way to rebuild our economy and strengthen the middle class is to make sure that everyone in America gets a fair shot at success. Instead of lowering our standards and our sights, we need to win a race to the top for good jobs that pay well and offer security for the middle class. To succeed and thrive in the global, high-tech economy, we need America to be a place with the highest-skilled, highest-educated workers; the most advanced transportation and communication networks; and the strongest commitment to research and technology in the world. This Budget makes investments that can help America win this race, create good jobs, and lead in the world economy.”

After making that broad policy statement, the document sticks Obama’s finger into the collective eye of the previous administration and the current Republican legislators. “When I took office 3 years ago, my Administration was left an annual deficit of $1.3 trillion, or 9.2 percent of GDP, and a projected 10-year deficit of more than $8 trillion. These deficits were the result of a previous 8 years of undertaking initiatives, but not paying for them—especially two large tax cuts and a new Medicare prescription drug benefit—as well as the financial crisis and recession …”

And then he pokes his finger into the other eye: “we enacted the Affordable Care Act, which will not only provide Americans with more affordable choices and freedom from insurance company abuses, but will also reduce our budget deficits by more than $1 trillion over the next two decades.” With every Republican candidate for president promising a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, it is inconvenient to be reminded that the bill, as analyzed by an independent arm of government, actually reduces deficits.

Adding insult to injury, Obama describes how he put $4-trillion in deficit reductions on the table during negotiations to extend the debt ceiling, and printed a road map to paying for the American Jobs Act, which is described as “a set of bipartisan, commonsense proposals designed to put more people back to work, put more money in the pockets of the middle class, and do so without adding a dime to the deficit.” If my reader will recall, I criticized Obama’s roadmap at the time it was printed because it detailed a huge detour to the Super Committee, which eventually failed to come up with any proposals. Their failure triggered automatic cuts in spending, but didn’t pay for any American Jobs Act.

Obama opines that he has designed a budget that will save the American Dream by:

·         Cutting the deficit by $4-trillion over the next decade.

·         Implementing the discretionary spending caps contained in the Budget Control Act of 2011.

·         Implementing a new “defense strategy that reconfigures our force to meet the challenges of the coming decade.” (This is probably the point where the Republican leaders stopped reading.  It comes at page 7, which only took 7 minutes to read, using our estimate of one page per minute.) This new defense strategy eliminates things like “the C-27 airlift aircraft and a new weather satellite.” His plan is to cut $487 billion from defense budgets over the next decade.

·         Allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire, eliminating “special tax breaks for oil and gas companies,” eliminating tax breaks for corporate jets, and implementing the “Buffett Rule.”

·         Fighting the Ryan Plan and reforming health programs to save over $360-billion over 10 years.

·         Implementing “mandatory savings” to save $217-billion over 10 years. “These include reductions in agricultural subsidies, changes in Federal employee retirement and health benefits, reforms to the unemployment insurance system and the Postal Service, and new efforts to provide a better return to taxpayers from mineral development.”

·         Promoting the American Jobs Act.

·         Supporting Pell Grants and education tax credits.

·         Creating 100,000 math and science teachers.

·         Supporting Race to the Top education grants.

·         Turning our unemployment system into a “re-employment” system.

·         Supporting non-defense research and development at the National Institute of Health, the Food and Drug Administration.

·         Investing in environmental research.  “By conserving iconic American landscapes, restoring significant ecosystems from the Everglades to the Great Lakes, and achieving measurable improvements in water and air quality, we are working with communities to protect the natural resources that serve as the engines of their local economies.”

·         Investing in clean energy. “These investments will help us achieve our goal of doubling the share of electricity from clean energy sources by 2035.”

·         Supporting small businesses.

Homework

Previous comments are based on the first 11 pages of the 256 page document. Summarizing this document may take 30 days (one day for each section), so there will be times when other events interrupt this program.

2013 White House Budget

]]>Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:43:51 -0700http://www.konolaforcolorado.com/1/post/2012/02/be-good-to-your-valentine.htmlMy post today has nothing to do with hearts or candy or flowers, but I thought I'd let you know that I do know what day it is.

My post also will not be about Obama's Budget, although it took Eric Cantor one hour to start telling lies about it. The Republican leadership in both houses were bashing it within hours of delivery. It is sad that politics have reached such a state. I'm sure that neither Cantor nor McConnell have read the budget. They probably never will. Maybe their staff will, but even that's doubtful.

I am a Democrat, and I'm not about to defend or bash Obama's budget until I actually read it.
That is going to take a while--it is a BOOK!

So that's all I have to say today. I'll read it. I'll comment about it, but not today. ]]>Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:41:53 -0700http://www.konolaforcolorado.com/1/post/2012/02/continuing-war-on-women.htmlI’ve written extensively on my firmly held belief that the Republicans are waging a war on women. But I’ve been quiet on the recent nonsense about contraception and the Catholic Church, a political wedge issue with no merit other than to drive voters, who might otherwise vote in favor of Democrats, into the desperate arms of some pretty weak Republican presidential candidates.

Yesterday on Meet the Press, Rick Santorum essentially said that all the angst for him was personal, that he’d never support a policy that would deny birth control to women. He claimed to be a good Catholic, who agreed with the teachings of his church.

Yesterday my mail box was filled with posts about Santorum’s hypocrisy during his life, including one post that detailed all of the beliefs of the Catholic Church that Republicans do not support. Most of the E-mails concerned his wife and things that have happened to her in her life. I did not fact check any of them, so forgive me if I am guilty of repeating untruths.

One story, which should have nothing to do with Rick Santorum’s bid for the presidency, claims that Karen Santorum lived with an abortion doctor, many years her senior,  without benefit of marriage. It claims that Karen left the good doctor because she wanted children and Rick was attractive enough as a sperm donor to jettison her belief that abortion might be a necessary procedure at times.

The other story is tragic and can only cause pain to the Santorums when they see it replayed in a presidential campaign.  It claims that Karen Santorum once had a late term abortion that saved her life. Nothing in the story indicates that the Santorums blithely aborted a child. It was a procedure that saved Karen’s life after she became infected by an earlier procedure, which was an attempt to save the life of the fetus.  Nonetheless, the procedure that reportedly saved Karen Santorum’s life is one that many of the out of touch men, including Rick Santorum himself, say they would deny women.

Of course these stories are in the news because Santorum’s star is rising as a GOP candidate for president. Santorum is a Catholic. Catholic Bishops picked a fight with President Obama. Can anyone say wedge issue?

Jonathan Turley blogged today about how all of this is Catholic V. Contraception angst has little to do with the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on a state religion. You should read the entire post yourself, but here are some quotes:

“A black man, accused of being secretly a Muslim, a socialist and an illegitimate pretender to the presidential throne, has accomplished what all of the post-Vatican II reconciliation committees and joint worship services and inter-faith conferences could not.”

“No longer will the Pope be called the Antichrist, nor Holy Mother Church the Whore of Rome. “

“Christians have reunited under the banner of Richard “Coeur de Lion” Santorum to defeat apostasy and reclaim America for Christendom.  The enemy this time?  An HHS regulation requiring most health insurance plans to include FDA approved forms of contraception in coverage for preventive health services.”

“The newest crusade, like its historical predecessors, is largely fueled by the bad faith of its leaders and the ignorance of its foot soldiers.”

“It has never been the law that the First Amendment exempts religion from all civil authority.  The First Amendment “embraces two concepts,-freedom to believe and freedom to act.  The first is absolute but, in the nature of things, the second cannot be.”  Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303-304 (1940)”

Homework

http://jonathanturley.org/2012/02/13/contraception-and-separation/   ]]>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 09:24:33 -0700http://www.konolaforcolorado.com/1/post/2012/02/santorum-pivots.htmlI previously wrote about how I thought that Michelle Bachmann was a better candidate than I was because she understood the political pivot. Intellectually I understand the pivot, but my gut is always to answer the question, so I follow my gut and forget to pivot. This morning on Meet the Press Rick Santorum demonstrated that his pivot is a beautifully executed pirouette.

When David Gregory asked him a question about culture wars, he masterfully delivered his message about economic growth and left the culture wars as a footnote. My reaction to Santorum this morning was much the same as my reaction after his Iowa speech. He has a way of connecting with people that is hand and shoulders above both Newt and Mitt.

Romney has consistently put his foot into the mouth that has spent a lifetime being fed with a silver spoon. Romney is rich, one of the richest men in the world. Romney has always been rich. Despite claiming to be unemployed, Romney has never faced homelessness or going to bed hungry. Romney is not concerned about the poor because he has no idea who they are or how they live.

Gingrich, on the other hand has one position—pissed off. He is mad at the media. He is mad at the other Republican candidates. He is mad at his ex-wifes. His is mad that his third choice for a religion can’t dictate to all women about birth control. Gingrich has burned bridges at every step in his life because he is always pissed off.

Don’t get me wrong, I would never vote for Santorum, but his rising star in the current field of Republican candidates is no fluke. He stays on message. He ducks the culture wars questions by saying that there is a difference between what he personally believes and what public policy should be. John Kerry said the same thing when he ran for president. And he smiles. Santorum is a very attractive candidate—he has a beautiful smile. He stacks the deck by bringing his entire beautiful family on stage with him at the conservative conference where another beauty queen got cheers and standing ovations because she can smile pretty.

What Palin and Santorum have in common is an understanding of how to smile and speak populace language. Mitt always looks like a cardboard cutout because he is uncomfortable around ordinary people, or maybe he is just uncomfortable around TV cameras. A local man told me yesterday that he was impressed with Mitt’s recent visit to Grand Junction because he took the time to speak to the crowd that had gathered outside the meeting room when there wasn’t room for all inside. This man was very complimentary about how Mitt treated one elderly woman during the exchange.

Santorum isn’t going away anytime soon, much to the chagrin of moneyed Republicans.

Homework:

Today’s homework is a post at Jonathon Turley’s blog about the constitutionality of the Obama compromise with the religious groups who want to deny women access to birth control. It includes a link to a segment that aired recently on MSNBC.

Employment Division v. Smith ]]>