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Or maybe....they just don't care!

Barbella

Barbella

Senator
I'm inclined to agree with that opinion. They just really don't give a damn about the peons....

What urgency? Clearly there is no need to worry about going into the so-called “fiscal cliff.” Congress and the President seem completely fine with no agreement on how to deal with the tax increases and the spending cuts that supposedly are taking place at the beginning of the year.

Were they lying to us when they agreed to the cuts back in 2011 or are they lying to us now?

Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke claimed during a congressional hearing that failure to reach an agreement would be catastrophic to our economy; hence, the now famous fiscal cliff analogy. So, maybe they have something up their sleeves and the cuts will actually not take place. Maybe they will employ some accounting gimmicks and they will be able to delay their implementation.

Or maybe they just really don’t care.

According to the President everyone should drink eggnog, eat some cookies and enjoy the holidays. He said this with a big smile as he was leaving for Hawaii for his annual Christmas vacation with this family. I always find it amusing to contrast how government vs. corporate America handles their challenges. In the corporate world, there would be no eggnog, no cookies and much less a vacation.

You stay put until the job is done, period.

Seriously, it appears to me that we must have been sold a bag of goods. The problem is that we don’t know when they were lying to us. Were they lying to us when they agreed to the cuts back in 2011 or are they lying to us now?

Let’s go back to 2011 when, as part of the deal to increase the debt limit, which also took a do-or-die urgency, they agreed to these tax increases and program cuts to become effective on January 1, 2013, if no agreement was reached by the end of 2012. What they in fact did was just kick the ball to the following year, and created another opportunity for another so-called emergency. This seems to be the perpetual way of Washington.

Now the President is expecting Republicans to increase taxes on people making more than $250,000 while only agreeing to half of the spending cuts he had originally suggested and in addition he wants total control over increases to the debt limit.

There seems to be no real leadership to deal with the fiscal problems our country is facing. Let me be clear, they are real. We face another downgrade to our credit rating, which will only exacerbate our borrowing ability and increase the cost of that borrowing. We need to get our spending under control. We elected Congress and the President to get that job done.

Forgotten are the 23 million people still unemployed in America; they need a job and our economy cannot rebound if we don’t have our house in order.

But contrary to Congress and the President, I am doubtful the unemployed will be happy drinking their eggnog and having some cookies.
Click to expand...

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/op...-on-cliff-maybe-just-dont-care/#ixzz2GLqZKFt8
 
now you're getting somewhere..

the closer we get to the 'cliff'....people are going to start squealing... lots of people.

Payroll tax holiday expires on monday. notices should be out today...methinks....


boom. and f'u says the house and senate...
 
So, the dumb asses at Fox Noise are finally figuring out that Obama holds all the cards.\

And, when it comes to "creating another opportunity for another so-called emergency", it's the GOP congressional leadership that has created every "so called emergency" over the last four years.

This time, their bluff is being called.

I'm sure that right trash media is doing everything it can NOT to remind the faithful of GOP brinksmanship, and how they led us to this emergency, but that only plays to the fools who were stupid enough to beleive that Romney was going to win in a landslide.
 
Or maybe Boehner says one thing one day and the opposite the next. We already know that he shakes on a deal behind closed doors and then looks for a camera to deny it ten minutes later.

It's hard to deal with a "leader" who isn't respected by and doesn't speak for his "followers".

If pugs want to put all of their chips on winning the blame game, I think Obama will be happy to go all in on that. He has a lot of support for the stance that no deal is better than a bad one. He won't be blamed by those who elected him twice. Going over the cliff will mean goodbye Grover, Boner and the baggers.
 
I think some of it may be that the spending cuts are real... except that - they probably don't apply to spending that has currently be alloted. Maybe that is what they are not telling us. Many government agencies have fiscal years that end in June or September. They don't end their fiscal years in December - so the cuts to their budgets won't affect their new spending until their next fiscal period which won't start for months.

Also, the tax rates changing - well we will feel that in our paychecks - but similiar things have happened before and they have enacted legislation and changed the tax tables mid year giving us more money in our paychecks later. The amount of increased taxes won't actually be paid until next year - anything that is extra withheld is just a timing difference and would result in bigger refunds or may be credited back during the year... so the reality is - that it probably isn't all that urgent to decide right now.

The big issue I see is the potential lay-offs of employees. Many government contractors are just waiting to see what is going to happen to decide if they need to do some lay-offs. Many times they start laying off well in advance if they know they won't have the work coming up. And, so they make these decision in January for work that they won't have come June.... so if they don't make a call at least fairly quickly - I see a lot of that happening soon.

Which is honestly my biggest gripe about defense spending. Lets pull our troops home and stop the bleeding over seas. Lets put some contracting requirements inplace that says 90% of our contracting dollar HAS to be spent with US based corporations. And, lets cut some international funding. BUT - defense weapons creation is BIG business here in the US. It creates a LOT of jobs from engineering to manufacturing. Cutting defense accross the board takes away jobs. Which is the opposite of what I think we need to be doing right now.

connie
 
A Republican now is worried about the unemployed not getting a check from the Government? Did she ever say one word about Republicans not passing a jobs bill? She is now worried about the Government cutting its spending too much? She IS worried about millionaires and billionaires might have to pay more taxes though.
 
Me, too. I already signed the "no deal is better than a bad deal" petition to the WH.

They'll do what they always do....kick the can. They'll continue the Bush cuts for under $250,000 before the deadline, with or without the 4.6% hike on the million dollar earners. I'm guessing with. They'll wait until the spotlight Democrats a bit before they deal with the cuts....with the new revenue in the mix.

Pure speculation, of course.
 
My thinking is a little different...

I think we will hit the cliff... the first effects will be felt today into monday as companies across the country have to notify employees that the payroll tax holiday is over... the yelping will begin when that paycheck is issued.

I think we will see a tak hike, but it will not be at the 250k threshold, but at 400 or even higher..

I think we will see someone blink on spending cuts. and soon.. maybe not before the cliff..but shortly thereafter..

and then i think we will find the 'blame' game will have an entirely different cast...
 
I absolutely DREAD the screaming I am going to have to hear from Wednesday through Friday next week. As my clients all go to process payroll and and give their employees checks less than what they were used to getting. There needs to be no notification.. the notification will be in the paycheck itself. I be I will field 50 calls the end of next week telling me how something must be wrong with their software because there is too much taxes being withheld.

connie
 
The Federal fiscal year runs from October 30 to September 1st. Many states run from July to June, as you have noted.

Defense spending is the least effecient and most wasetful way to finance engineering and manufacturing jobs. It's a cost plus system that does not encourage open competition. It isn't capitalism. It's mercantilism, where the state picks the winners and gives them enough public resources to see that they get the job done. Real cost competition isn't necessary or desirable under such a system.

I agree with you that draconian cuts in munitions and military spending would be disasterous in the short run, given the way the military industrial complex has embedded itself in our economy. But in the long run, we will not have a competative economy if we continue to shift more and more of our private industry resources into chasing military/security complex dollars.

As an aside, I think that we shoud give the military back its old name. The Defense Department needs a name that accurately reflect its role: The War Department.
 
"Seriously, it appears to me that we must have been sold a bag of goods. The problem is that we don’t know when they were lying to us. Were they lying to us when they agreed to the cuts back in 2011 or are they lying to us now?"


If their lips are moving it's a good sign that they are.
 
the author is mistaken. the republicans care a great deal.

they are fighting like hell to protect the top 2% from tax increases.
 
The system as it exists now is not particularly efficient. I do not advocate leaving the status quo. The DCAA is YEARS behind in doing audits of cost plus contracts. Which they need to do to certify the rates contractors ask for. If they are years behind - how much have we overspent. How much can they actually audit and into what detail?

We spend WAY too much on the cost plus basis. There are times it is important. When you don't know how much it iwll really cost to develop a weapon, etc. BUT - there are ways to address that. Have cost plus be part of the development phase then have the construction phase competitively bid. Or have the construction phase be time and material with a 3 - 4% mark-up only.

But, its not just that kind of work that falls under defense spending. Renovations on bases, etc fall under that and they are competitvely bid for the most part - except they usually cater to 8a or SDAV set asides, which is usually a total sham and crock. And, after witnessing the excesses those contractors make - would LOVE to see some big big changes there on allowable profit margins, etc.

I am for making cuts and changes there. And, I agree it is an inefficient way to spend the money. It helps too feew contractors. But, I think the adjustments need to be phased in. There are a LOT of jobs at stake, and a lot of places like Boeing plants for instance, that are what prop up whole communities.... we need to consider that when we make decisions on spending.


connie
 
I'll bet a nickel that you won't have to include those notifications. Not sure I'd bet a dime, though.
 
Well, there isn't any notification necessary regardless of what they do. I would be they would vote to at least extend the SS cut.
 
Your first paragraph should give you food for thought.

Did you ever wonder WHY the DCAA is years behind auditing cost plus contracts? Didn't it ever occur to you that it serves a very powerful constituency to insure that it stays that way?

Where were you when the Bush adminstration was doing everything it could to PREVENT effective cost managment of military contracts related to the Iraq war. Don't you remember how he tried to eliminate the Inspector General's office?

I've been involved in a lot of federal contracts as a contractor and as a subcontractor. If these are your most effecient contracts, you have a lot to learn about managing costs!!!! I agree with you on SDAV and particularly 8a set asides.

Your system is opague, difficult to navigate, and rewards those people with the patience to do so very well.

I think you have a real problem with people like CACI, SAIC, Booz Allen and the rest of the Beltway Bandits. They strike me as little more than retirement bonuses for retired bird colonels.

I was once seated at a dinner with some ex colonels from CACI. They were all grinning like cats that just ate a very very fat canary. I asked them what it was that CACI actually does. They laughed and said, that htey did whatever needed to be done.

That's not a forumula for cost effecient contracting. A company that specializes in bing a jack of any trade and master of none (other than working the procurement system) is not going to save you a dime if they can put it in their pocket first!
 
The author is a FoxNews contributor. I scroll to the bottom of all Barb's copy-n-pastes before I read anything else. I don't do FoxNews.
 
I read it wrong. I thought you wrote that the notification would be in with the checks. The check itself....got it.
 
I never said they were the most efficient. They are quite inefficient. I know that the DCAA is behind particularly by design. I am not nor have I ever been a fan of the Bush administration. I voted against the second one twice. I am only 35... so when they were trying to end the inspector general's office, I was probably in college. So, I wasn't exactly up on the latest beltway politics.

I have seen lots of former military get very rich running companies that serve the military. I think it is a scam. I think that it is is bloated and not cost effective. I don't know why you think I was saying otherwise. I will have to re-read my posts to see if I wrote effective when I meant ineffective.

Either way, there has got to be a better way to do military contracting. NOT that we will see it really happen. But, I do not agree with dranconian cuts that are ultimately going to mostly hurt average working people. The fat cats - have already made their money. I am all for eliminating the financial incentives that got them there, but not of eliminating the necessary spending to maintain our facilities and make sure we have the latest and best technology.
 
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