South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

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economy Media Taxes Thune

Saturday Morning News Roundup; Ironic Johnny has a very short memory

l3wis 1Comments

John, John, John, remember that 1.4 trillion dollar tax cut you handed over to all the richy riches of the country;

As President Obama finally starts to fight for his economic stimulus bill, roadblock Republicans in the Senate continue to decry the price tag. While John Thune (R-SD) described how many times $1 trillion worth of $100 bills would circle the earth, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) proclaimed “Americans can’t afford a trillion-dollar mistake.” Of course, back in 2001, the GOP had no qualms (along with some invertebrate Democrats) in passing George W. Bush’s much larger $1.4 trillion tax cut package. And as today’s unending sea of red ink and unprecedented upward redistribution of wealth attest, the Republican Party is simply calling for more of the same.

Stop being a Dick, Dick, just go away;

You, Mr. Cheney, you terrified more Americans than did any terrorist in the last seven years, and now it is time for you to desist, or to be made to desist.

Don’t forget to Douche this morning;

So it turns out that when Plumber Joe was a child, he was on welfare, not once, but twice, and he credits it with helping his family ultimately lead a middle-class life style. He defends having received welfare by saying that he’s subsequently paid into the system.

Have I ever mentioned before that I thank God everyday Sarah Palin wasn’t elected vice-president;

(CNN) — Todd Palin and nine aides were found in contempt Friday by the Alaska Senate for failing to appear to testify in the Legislature’s “troopergate” investigation of his wife, Gov. Sarah Palin, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Democratic Party said.

economy SF City Council Sioux Falls

Contingency plan? How about an active plan?

l3wis 0Comments

Noah had a plan, does Sioux Falls?

As I mentioned in a post on January 8th, Newark, New Jersey’s very popular mayor asks his department heads to cut 10%-15% this year to prepare for the economic downturn. This wasn’t a suggestion, it was an order.

Sioux Falls City finance director, Eugene ‘Montgomey Burns’ Rowenhorst announced that the city has a contingency plan in place, in case shit hits the fan with this economy.

The city is making contingency plans to deal with slowing revenues. Before 2008, the city’s sales tax revenues grew at about 7 percent a year, excluding slower growth in the post 9-11 recession. But last year the revenue grew by just 1.7 percent.

Well, I hate to break you the news, Eugene, but we have already been splattered. The time to act is now. But the city doesn’t seem to be too worried about it, heck, they are even going on a hiring spree;

But things are not bad enough to consider layoffs. In fact, this year’s budget, which started Jan. 1, includes funding for about 25 new positions in city government.

“We’ve got those in the plan, and right now the plan is those 25 will come on board,” Rowenhorst said.

So your constingency plan is just smoke and mirrors? No real action?

But Mark Weber, a Sioux Falls resident with an advanced degree in economics, warns that city officials would be wise to plan for a scenario where tax revenues actually decrease from the previous year. Rising unemployment levels will impact sales tax collections and lead to greater delinquencies in property taxes.

“Nowhere in this contingency plan is a plan for a more drastic alternative,” Weber said. “I believe their department is in a world that doesn’t reflect the reality that’s coming.”

Mark, are you just realizing today that most of the council, mayor and department heads don’t have a grasp on reality. LMFAO! Than I cried.

My suggestion would be to do what Mayor Booker told his department heads, make cuts ahead of the storm and NO new hires. This will help pad budget shortfalls in the future and hopefully prevent layoffs of city employees. Of course those decisions would take common sense – something lacking in the chambers of Carnegie Hall.

Why do I think the city doesn’t want to move ahead now with cuts – because citizens would realize something I have known for a long time, the city spends too much money. If a 10-15% cut proves useful and the city gets by just fine, it proves that point. It’s hard to rehab an addict, and our city leaders have been addicted to spending for a very long time.

Get ready for the DT’s at City Hall.

economy Iraq War

About time someone said it

l3wis 8Comments

Barney Frank slams Jim DeMint and Republicans on This Week

FRANK: The largest spending bill in history is going to turn out to be the war in Iraq. And one of the things, if we’re going to talk about spending, I don’t — I have a problem when we leave out that extraordinarily expensive, damaging war in Iraq, which has caused much more harm than good, in my judgment.

 

 

And I don’t understand why, from some of my conservative friends, building a road, building a school, helping somebody get health care, that’s — that’s wasteful spending, but that war in Iraq, which is going to cost us over $1 trillion before we’re through — yes, I wish we hadn’t have done that. We’d have been in a lot better shape fiscally.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That is a whole another show, so I’m going to…

(CROSSTALK)

FRANK: That’s the problem. The problem is that we look at spending and say, “Oh, don’t spend on highways. Don’t spend on health care. But let’s build Cold War weapons to defeat the Soviet Union when we don’t need them. Let’s have hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars going to the military without a check.” Unless everything’s on the table, then you’re going to have a disproportionate hit in some places.

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