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We Hit the Debt Ceiling — Now What?

May 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The United States hit the debt ceiling on Monday, surpassing $14.3 trillion in debt owed to pay for super important things like the stimulus that was going to keep unemployment from going over 8 percent. It’s totally cool though, because Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner suspended investments in federal retirement funds to buy us a few months to figure out what the heck to do.

Congress has until August 2 to raise the debt ceiling (think of this as a credit card limit — there’s only so much you’re allowed to borrow) or balance the budget.

This has happened numerous times since 1917, when the first limit was set. The idea was a good one: Congress could only borrow so much money before it had to figure out a way to balance the budget and pay back the debt. In theory, it works as a permission slip to borrow and spend, because Congress gets to decide whether or not to increase the limit.

Read the rest at The Stir

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Filed Under: Bail Outs, Broken Promises, Economy, Politicians, Recession, Red vs. Blue, Taxes, The Stir · Tagged With: ,

Democrat Daphne Campbell Has the Right to Think for Herself

May 9, 2011 by 1 Comment

Florida is the latest in a line of states (including South Dakota) that has recently passed bills that would allow pregnant women considering anabortion to make an informed decision. The Florida bills, passed last week by a large majority in the State House of Representatives, include measures that would require mothers to undergo an ultrasound before an abortion, and also outlaw the termination of viable babies in the third trimester.

One freshman representative, Daphne Campbell, was chewed out as a traitor and had her job threatened by follow house member Scott Randolph over her support of the bill. Both politicians are Democrats.

“I was the victim of an altercation by my fellow state representative, Scott Randolph,” said Campbell on Monday. “Several items were thrown in my face, foul language was used against me, and I was insulted and ridiculed in front of all my colleagues. I was called a ‘traitor’ and was told that I was going to be kicked out of office next year.”

Read the rest at The Stir

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Filed Under: Abortion, Feminism, Politicians, Racism, Red vs. Blue, The Stir · Tagged With: , ,

Tax on Electric Cars Makes No Sense

April 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Washington State has spent a lot of effort over the past few years enticing people to buy electric cars over old school gas-guzzlers. In addition to a tax incentive from the federal government, the state has exempted sales tax on the purchase of electric vehicles. In other words, it’s a great deal to buy a car that uses less gas.

People buy hybrid or electric cars for one of two reasons: To save money or to appear cool. People that actually want to save the planet ride bikes, not drive coal-powered cars.

To the hipsters, a tax on electric vehicles might not be a huge issue. These people might even feel that paying higher taxes for the privilege of driving a Prius makes them even cooler.

Read the rest at The Stir

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Filed Under: Broken Promises, Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Environmentalism, Politicians, Recession, Taxes, Technology, The Stir · Tagged With: , ,

Obama Executive Order Discriminates Against Party Affiliation

April 25, 2011 by 2 Comments

Last year, our constitutional republic failed to pass the DISCLOSE Act, which would have required large donors to disclose their giving topolitical organizations, and prohibited federal contractors from donating to political causes. Apparently, some people still like their privacy and freedom of choice, and our Democrat-controlled Congress respected that.

Kudos.

But now, the Obama Administration has drafted an executive order that would allow the government to examine the political contributions of companies applying for federal contracts. In other words, “the will of the people must be overcome!”

The proposed executive order claims that “every stage of the contracting process … be free from the undue influence of factors extraneous to the underlying merits of contracting decision making, such as political activity or political favoritism.”

Wonderful! I completely agree with that. What I disagree with is the fashion in which this order demands freedom from outside influences. This order would allow the government to examine all political donations made by officers and directors of companies applying for federal contracts.

Read the rest at The Stir

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Filed Under: Equality, Nanny State, Obama, Politicians, Red vs. Blue, The Stir, Thugs · Tagged With: , ,

Wonkette Mocks ‘Retarded’ Trig Palin on His 3rd Birthday

April 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

In a low that hardly seems possible in this age of civility, the online DC gossip site Wonkette has viciously attacked the disabled toddler of a former politician. Trig Palin celebrated his third birthday on April 18, and to mark the occasion, Team Sarah posted a birthday poem to the former Alaskan Governor’s youngest son.

In a completely unwarranted response to the gesture, the folks at Wonkette questioned Trig’s parentage, implied incest within the Palin family, called the little boy a retarded political prop, and recommended that he get drunk to deal with his family that’s even stupider than he is.

Also, he licks strangers just like his big sister Piper licked her fingers to smooth down his hair on camera once. That must mean all the Palin children are morons because … because why, exactly? What mother hasn’t smoothed down her kid’s hair with spit on occasion, and what big sister hasn’t mimicked mommy with her younger siblings?

Read the rest at The Stir

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Filed Under: Equality, Feminism, Media, Parenting, Politicians, Sarah Palin, The Stir · Tagged With: , ,

Jesse Jackson Jr. Blames Apple and iPads for Lost Jobs

April 19, 2011 by 1 Comment

In a sharp turn from his promotion of “an iPad for every schoolchild” on the House floor last month, Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. recently claimed that Apple has hurt our economy and cost usvaluable jobs with its innovative tablet computer.

Now Borders is closing stores because why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes & Noble? Buy an iPad and download your newspaper, download your book, download your magazine.

And in news from 100 years ago, Henry Ford caused massive unemployment from horse and buggy manufacturing plants when he implemented the assembly line in his automobile factory to crank out Model-Ts.

Too bad we don’t use real horsepower as our primary mode of transportation anymore. I have extensive knowledge on the subject due to my vast collection of regency romance novels, and every girl worth her salt knows that the best way to seduce a duke is in a carriage.  Minivans have denied too many ladies ascension to royalty.

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Filed Under: Capitalism, Economy, Politicians, Recession, Technology, The Stir · Tagged With: , , ,

President Obama Attempts to Tackle Deficit Spending With High Taxes

April 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment

On Wednesday, President Obama addressed the nation to talk about the deficit problem. Theannual deficit is the amount of money our government spends in a year that is not covered by the taxes we pay. That is opposed to the national debt, which is the accumulation of these deficits.

Currently, our deficit is $1.65 trillion. To put that in perspective, if one dollar equaled one second, it would take over 52,000 years to equal this year’s deficit. I don’t think my poor little calculator could do the math on our over $14 trillion of accumulated debt.

Obviously something needs to be done. We either need more money coming in, or less money going out. As pointed out on IowaHawk’s blog, not enough money realistically exists to cover our expenditures. Therefore, we must reduce our spending to balance the budget and begin to pay down our tremendous debt.

According to Reuters, 59% of Americans would cut programs to reduce deficit spending, while 30% would raise taxes to cover the cost. President Obama agreed in Wednesday’s speech that cutting some spending might be necessary … right before he slammed Republicans for trying to lead us to a fundamentally different America than the one he’s known.

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Filed Under: Economy, Healthcare, Obama, Politicians, Recession, Red vs. Blue, Social Security, Taxes, The Stir · Tagged With: , ,

Seniors Will Starve and Fairies Will Die on Republican Budget

April 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Unless the politicians in Washington can come up with a budgetfor the fiscal year we’re currently halfway through, the government will shut down all non-essential services. The funding dries up Friday at midnight, which means that some 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed and also that Yellowstone Park will close temporarily.

The problem with creating a budget is that Republicans andDemocrats can’t agree on how much money to spend and what items to spend it on. There are just so many ways to spend other people’s money that sometimes it’s hard to decide whether to fundmenopausal yoga classes or blatantly biased media outlets.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi pointed out the key difference between the ideologies of the right and the left: Liberals care about their fellow citizens, and Conservatives don’t give a crap about starving seniors. OK, maybe I paraphrased a teensy bit. Here’s what she actually said:

In one of the bills before us, six million seniors are deprived of meals — homebound seniors are deprived of meals. People ask us to find our common ground, the middle ground. Is middle ground three million seniors not receiving meals? I don’t think so. We’ve got to take this conversation from a debate about numbers and dollar figures and finding middle ground there, to the higher ground of national values. I don’t think the American people want any one of those six million people to lose their meals.

Read the rest at The Stir

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Filed Under: Charity, Common Sense, Economy, Nancy Pelosi, Politicians, Recession, Red vs. Blue, Taxes, The Stir, Welfare · Tagged With: , ,

Jenny Erikson Radio Show – Episode 0013

April 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

In which I rant about cleaning my daughters’ room, household budgets versus the federal budget, and Amelia Hamilton joins me for Conservative Chick Chat.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Filed Under: Abortion, Common Sense, Economy, Education, Jenny Erikson Radio show, Media, Obama, Politicians, Red vs. Blue, Religion, Sharia, Taxes · Tagged With: , ,

The Latest on Obamacare: Weiner Waivers & IHOP Woes

March 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Last March, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi boldly told the public that the Affordable Care Act needed to be passed before we could find out what was in it. The bill was soon passed and signed into law, and one year later, we are still peeling back the layers on the onion that is Obamacare.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) originally didn’t support President Obama’s health care initiative, but for a different reason than his Republicans counterparts. Where Republicans on the Hill voted against a massive intrusion of government into 1/6 of the economy, Rep. Weiner wasn’t fond of Obamacare because he didn’t believe it went far enough. The congressman sponsored an amendment to implement universal coverage – Medicare for all.

Read the rest at The Stir

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Filed Under: Economy, Healthcare, Nancy Pelosi, Nanny State, Obama, Politicians, Recession, Red vs. Blue, Taxes, The Stir · Tagged With: , ,
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