On 05-20-13, BOB KLAHN said to ALL:   
      
   Since you saw fit to bring a controversy involving me into this echo, in   
   violation of your own rules AND after whining to Ed Koon about me posting in   
   here...I will reply to this as it contains a huge fallacy that nobody   
   (including *The Great and All Wise Klahn*) seems to catch onto.   
      
      
   BK>http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/07/   
   BK>financial-institutions-admit-austerity-failed/   
      
      
   BK>Financial Institutions Admit Austerity Failed   
      
      
   ANY financial institution that claims `Austerity Failed'..isn't smart enough   
   to know that, when it comes to the U.S. Congress...we aren't talking about   
   *Austerity*..we're talking *Spend-Thrift*!   
      
      
   BK>Thursday, 09 May 2013 13:32 By Ken Klippenstein   
      
      
   BK>2013 has been something of a confessional period for the   
   BK>economic managerial class. The IMF's chief economist perhaps   
   BK>demonstrated this point best when he conceded that "forecasters   
   BK>significantly underestimated the increase in unemployment and   
   BK>the decline in domestic demand associated with fiscal   
   BK>consolidation (a polite term for "austerity)."   
      
   BK>----------------------------------------------------------------   
   BK>IOW, business is not hiring and expanding because they got no   
   BK>customers. Funny, I do believe Paul Krugman has been saying that   
   BK>for years.   
   BK>----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
      
   Business `is not hiring' because of a lot of reasons. Take the biggest reason   
   created in just the last four years: Obamacare!   
      
      
   Question:   
      
      
   When did the responsibility for buying health insurance get shifted from the   
   employEE to the employER?   
      
      
   How did that happen? Lets do a quick run-through on this. shall we?   
      
      
   A prospective employEE applies to an employER for a job. The employER selects   
   the best qualified person from a group of applicants ande hires that person.   
      
      
   The employER pays a salary. The employEE takes that salary and lives on it,   
   paying their basics (rent\mortgage), food, utilities, auto insurance, health   
   insurance, etc etc.   
      
      
   Everybody's happy.   
      
      
   BK>Meanwhile, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, the Harvard   
   BK>economists responsible for one of the more influential studies   
   BK>used to defend austerity have admitted "austerity is not the   
   BK>only answer to a debt problem."   
      
      
   Then they know something I don't. Because the bottom line here is, whether you   
   are a single person, married with children, or an entire nation...one thing   
   remains true over all forms of `X' (for the abstract-thinking impaired:   
   `X'=debt)....you cannot SPEND your way out of debt! The only way to get OUT of   
   debt is to pay the friggin' debt off! And you don't do that by taking NEW debt   
   on! I don't care how educated someone is or what prestigeous university they   
   are connected with....you cannot SPEND your way out of debt.   
      
      
   Another thing:   
      
      
   IF you are taking in $xx,xxx per year...and spending $xxx,xxsx per year.. any   
   second-grade student can see that $xx,xxx MINUS $xxx,xxx, is a minus number   
   for an answer! If you are taking $xx,xxx per year, and spending $xxx,xxx per   
   year for ten years or more (in the case ofthe U.S. Congress it runs into a   
   couple of generations of spending more than it took in. Doing the math tells   
   you that runs up a huge debt!), you are in serious debt.   
      
      
   BK>----------------------------------------------------------------   
   BK>Since it doesn't work at all, it's probably not the only answer.   
   BK>----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
      
   Yes it DOES work! HOW? you may ask? Simple! JUST STOP SPENDING....and START   
   PAYING OFF the debt you have now! It works! Ask anyone who's been financially   
   stretched out that they needed a second job to pay off a car loan, or help pay   
   off a second mortgage, or pay for a kid's college education. Austerity really   
   DOES work!   
      
      
   BK>the failure to recognize that austerity didn't work during the   
   BK>Great Depression and won't work now, during the Great Recession.   
      
      
   Thats the propaganda they spread to hide the fact that they are enemies of   
   austerity. IF government did nothing but provide for the nation's   
   infractructure, defense, and a few other essentials (and NO...abortion is NOT   
   an essential, and neither is nationalized health care!), and JUST STOPPED   
   SPENDING for frivolous things....the federal government would have a lot more   
   money, could pay off its debt (although now I think the national debt has   
   gotten to a point where I don't think it CAN be paid off) and have money laid   
   aside to where it could give the taxpayers some of it back!   
      
      
   BK>----------------------------------------------------------------   
   BK>I do believe I mentioned that before. And referenced   
   BK>www.snipurl.com/fdr1937   
   BK>----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
      
   Another area government doesn't belong is education. The department of   
   education is a useless department that should be abolished.   
      
      
   Education is NOT a government responsibility on the national level. It belongs   
   on the state and local level.   
      
      
   The EPA is an out-of-control department that has done more to stymie growth   
   and prosperity in the last thirty years than almost any other department in   
   the fed. Another thing that belongs on the state and local level and not the   
   federal level.   
      
      
   BK>They simultaneously demand stimulus and deficit reduction. As   
   BK>Treasury Secretary Jack Lew put it, "We shouldn't choose between   
   BK>growth and job creation and getting our fiscal house in order."   
   BK>This is like a child wishing he could stay up all night and get   
   BK>a good night's sleep:   
      
      
   Lets take a look at some things here in just the recent past:   
      
      
   The person in the White House took this `sequester' thing and deliberately   
   made it as painful in various areas as possible. He cuts off White House tours   
   for school kids (even thouogh he's a member of the party that *claims* to be   
   `for the children'), yet thinks nothing of hosting a bash of so-called `super   
   stars' in that very same White House, at the taxpayers' expense! He did it for   
   *political* reasons. He doesn't give a flyin' fuck about `fly-over, USA', he   
   only cares about playing political games with his enemies. He's a piece of   
   shit! Worse even that Jimmy Carter.   
      
      
   BK>----------------------------------------------------------------   
   BK>IOW, no matter how much they admit they were wrong, they never   
   BK>actually quite admit they were wrong.   
   BK>----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
      
   The cost of Air Force One alone is right around $179,000 per hour! And that   
   isn't the only cost involved. There is also the cost of the fighter escort   
   that protects Air Force One as well, to the tune of $41,000 or more per hour   
   (for the F-15 Eagle).   
      
      
   BK>In elite circles, "simplistic" explanations are any which   
   BK>involve elementary truths: that   
      
      
   In the *real* world, "austerity" means spending a whole lot less than you take   
   in. By *real* world, I mean you and I living out here in fly-over land, who   
   work for a living, pay the living expenses and the income taxes that keep our   
   government in spending money.   
      
      
   In Washington DC..."austerity" means cutting off a White House tour that costs   
   $xxx,xxx dollars....but SPENDING $y,yyy,yyy for one party bash...or using Air   
   Force One to the tune of a million dollars or more for a fund-raising tour of   
   the country, while cutting out day-care or school lunches (and HOW the   
   taxpayers ever picked up the responsibility of paying for school lunches I'll   
   never know!), or the cost of school nurses, or some other so-called necessity.   
      
      
   The hypocrisy of that seems to have escaped our `fourth estate', who USED to   
   be the watchdog of our Republic, but slowly became the tool of a single   
   political establishment; the democrats!   
      
      
      
   BK>----------------------------------------------------------------   
   BK>Like: Unemployment bad... full employment good.   
   BK>----------------------------------------------------------------   
      
      
   Full employment would be possible if the federal government hadn't over the   
   years taxed and regulated full employent out of existance (and don't even get   
   me STARTED on the unions!), suppressed job growth, stolen money in the form of   
   heavier taxes on the very people who do the most to create employment (the   
   wealthy), and just generally presented a stumbling block for every attempt to   
   make this country self-sufficient, gainfully employed, energy-independent, and   
   a world leader in economic success.   
      
      
   Austerity works just fine. Free enterprise without government interference   
   works just fine as well. Our Congress ought to try it sometime. But they   
   wouldn't know that because its been a hundred years or more since they've   
   practiced `austerity' in any form whatever!   
      
      
   By the way....this so-called `sequester'? Don't believe they are saving a   
   single nickel anywhere in our government costs, whether its a democrat or a   
   republican doing the telling. Both sides are lying their collective ass's off   
   about it.   
      
      
   They aren't saving anything. They are putting as much if not more out than   
   they are talking about. The `sequester' is just the `image on the screen' they   
   present to the taxpaying public, to take our attention away from the little   
   man behind the curtain who's pulling levers and pressing the buttons; ie:   
   talking a `saving money game' while spending their collective ass's off!   
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
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   *Durango b301 #PE*    
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