Administration
Lashes Out at Congressmen's Failure to Consume Office Budget
Allowance
Senator
Rand Paul (R-Ken) held a press event to announce he is returning
$600,000 in unused funds to the US Treasury. The Senator said he was
“proud of the fiscal prudence shown by my staff in making sure we
are as efficient as possible with the taxpayers' money.” This is
the second time Paul has refunded money. Last year he returned
$500,000.
Representative
Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) also announced his office was returning $160,000
in unspent funds. “At a time when Americans are tightening their
budgets, I have made an effort to do the same with my Congressional
office budget,” Mulvaney said.
Presidential
Press Secretary Jay Carney denounced the refunds, calling them
“political grandstanding” and “deliberate attempts to undermine
the nation's confidence in the President's program. Given the
perilous state of the economy the President has made it clear that
maintaining a high level of government spending is essential to
sparking economic recovery. The savings on computers, paper and ink
that Senator Paul boasts he has achieved are the exact opposite of
what the President wants.”
The Press
Secretary promised that “these uncooperative actions will not
succeed. The amounts diverted by these Congressional misers are small
enough that a single additional trip to a golf course outside of the
DC area by the President can expend sufficient funds completely
obliterate their negative impact.”
Carney
speculated that “seeing their errant penny-pinching wiped out by a
leisure expenditure benefiting the President could be a severe blow
to the morale of these right-wing obstructionists.”
Chicago
Says No to Guns on Public Transit
The
Chicago Transit Authority rejected the National Rifle Association's
stance in support of allowing those with concealed carry permits to
board buses and trains with their weapons. “We think it would be
disastrous to allow passengers to carry concealed weapons on our
trains and buses,” said CTA President Forrest Claypool.
“On
balance, it would be better for passengers to simply allow themselves
to be robbed or even shot than to engage in gun battles with
assailants on board our vehicles,” Claypool reasoned. “Fewer
people will be hurt if the criminals are unopposed than if victims
attempt to resist.”
Claypool
discounted research showing that looser restrictions on the
law-abiding owners of weapons seems to lead to fewer crimes,
including shootings, saying he was “uncomfortable with how crime is
defined by these right-wing screeds. Who's to say that the existing
distribution of property is equitable? Is the use of deadly force to
oppose a free lance redistribution really justifiable? It is our
position that the confined spaces of buses and trains are not an
appropriate venue for deciding such complex issues.”
Robert
Kelly, who represents Transit Workers Union Local 308, concurred with
Claypool's view. “Drivers are instructed not to resist when
confronted by an armed assailant,” Kelly pointed out. “If this is
the proper response for the most important person on the vehicle why
shouldn't the same rule apply to the other occupants?”
Administration
Unfazed by GAO Report
A recently
issued report by the Government Accountability Office says that the
federal government is on a financially unsustainable course. The debt
is so large that the anticipated annual interest payments are
expected to exceed the economy's rate of growth. The government would
have to run annual budget surpluses just to maintain its current debt
to GDP ratio.
Despite
all the publicity being given to the so called draconian cuts
envisioned by the sequester, there are no actual cuts to spending. At
best, only the rate of growth in spending would be slowed, but not by
enough to generate a budget surplus anytime in the foreseeable
future.
Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner brushed aside the report's findings,
insisting that “the assumptions made by its authors are by no means
certain. The belief that we have no alternative but to pay these
debts is false. The government is sovereign. It has the means to
perpetuate itself by whatever actions it deems necessary. If paying
these debts becomes too burdensome it can decline to pay or inflate
the currency sufficiently to wipe out the value of the money owed.
The American people can rest assured that their government will
survive by hook or by crook.”
Of course,
failure to pay would inflict huge losses on holders of US Government
obligations. Geithner questioned whether this would be as bad as it
sounds, though. “Buying US Government debt is a voluntary act,”
Geithner reminded. “No one forced these purchasers to risk their
money in this way. They bought these bonds out of greed. We shouldn't
weep too much if they suffer losses instead.”
The
Treasury Secretary took some solace in the fact that “the
Democrats' core constituencies are largely safe from this risk.
People on food stamps and welfare don't buy these bonds. Most of the
working class owes more than they own. An inflation that wipes out
the value of government debt would also wipe out the value of their
debt. So we're pretty confident that the Party isn't exposed to any
retribution at the polls.”
Head
Start Students Do Worse
The
rationale for the federal government's “Head Start” program is to
give disadvantaged students a boost with their school work. Sadly,
though, a recently completed research study by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services reveals that students enrolled in the
program actually do worse than similarly disadvantaged peers not in
the program. The biggest deficits show up in math and behavior.
Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius urged that “we should not read too much into
these findings. Given our society's widespread access to computers,
calculators, and cash registers that can do the math for us,
proficiency in math may not be as an important a skill as it once
was. Many people occupying positions of high authority in our
government readily admit a lack of aptitude for math. So, I'd say
that discovering that our Head Start students aren't grasping the
subject isn't something I'd get worked up about.”
“The
important thing is that President Obama has stressed how crucial this
program is to his agenda,” Sebelius argued. “While this and
previous studies have indicated that there seems to be little
tangible benefit from the program, from what I've seen, the
intangible gains are significant. When students are joyfully singing
the President's praises it is clear that their lives have been
improved. I'll take that over a dry comparison of test scores any
day.”
The
Secretary was disdainful of critics who see a disturbing similarity
between the indoctrination of American children and that of North
Korean children. “Just because we have our differences with these
other cultures doesn't mean that everything they do is wrong,”
Sebelius pointed out. “Teaching children respect and reverence for
the country's leader strikes me as a very positive objective of our
educational system.”
State
Senator Wants Crackdown on Anonymous Internet Commentary
Illinois
State Senator Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago) has introduced legislation
that would require Internet web sites to remove anything posted by an
anonymous poster if someone complains about the content. Under the
proposed bill, to avoid having his content removed a poster would
have to attach his legal name, IP address, and home address.
“As it
stands now, pretty much anyone can post anything he wants,”
Silverstein complained. “If he does it anonymously someone who is
offended by the posting has no recourse other than to try to rebut it
in his own post. This may be acceptable for a person who is
articulate, but many people aren't.”
Silverstein
said he isn't worried that his bill could chill freedom of speech.
“Freedom of speech shouldn't be a 'blank check' to offend other
people,” he contended. “There's also a need for government
authorities to be able to identify potential troublemakers.
Restricting web site access to those willing to give their real names
will significantly aid this process. If these potential troublemakers
are uncomfortable with identifying themselves to the extent that they
refrain from posting undesirable remarks is that really a bad
outcome?”
Colorado
Representative Apologizes for Remarks
Democratic
Colorado state Representative Joe Salazar issued an apology for
suggesting that women fearful of being raped couldn't be trusted with
guns.
“It was
not my intent to offend anyone,” Salazar maintained. “It's just
that I don't believe more guns are the answer to any public safety
problem. I think that if a woman has a gun a dangerous situation
could easily be escalated from rape to homicide. Her having a gun
just increases the risk of doubling the casualty count.”
As
an alternative to arming themselves Salazar suggested that women who
feel threatened should carry whistles. “Most of the time a toot or
two will scare off a potential attacker,” he insisted. “If it
doesn't it still increases the chances that the rapist will be
interrupted or possibly apprehended. The big plus, though, is that
the woman will be relieved of the risk of feeling guilty for shooting
someone. In my mind, it is better for a woman to be an innocent
victim with a clear conscience than to have to bear the blame for
harming another person.”