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Pi Day

Time to celebrate the ratio of your circumference to your diameter!

Cashing In the IOUs

The bill is coming due. 

For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year.

Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes — nearly $29 billion more.

Sounds like a good time to start tapping the nest egg. Too bad the federal government already spent that money over the years on other programs, preferring to borrow from Social Security rather than foreign creditors. In return, the Treasury Department issued a stack of IOUs — in the form of Treasury bonds — which are kept in a nondescript office building just down the street from Parkersburg’s municipal offices.

Now the government will have to borrow even more money, much of it abroad, to start paying back the IOUs, and the timing couldn’t be worse. The government is projected to post a record $1.5 trillion budget deficit this year, followed by trillion dollar deficits for years to come.

Caption Contest

Source.

Bad Reporting

This report is so unprofessional that it makes me cringe.

Republicans and conservative tea party members railed against health care reform, global warming legislation and government spending at a convention Saturday that attracted about 2,000 people.

The meeting, organized by the conservative group Americans for Prosperity and dubbed an unofficial tea party convention, brought together numerous Republican officeholders, party leaders and candidates in addition to national speakers like “Joe the Plumber” and Michael Reagan, the son of former President Ronald Reagan.

[...]

The meeting came roughly a year after the first tea party rallies in the state and nationwide. Wisconsin tea party organizers say they have no interest in starting a third political party and instead want to work closely with Republicans.

The reporter doesn’t even bother to share the actual name of the gathering.  For the record, it’s the Defending the American Dream summit.  Also, although some may have dubbed it an “unofficial tea party convention,” it is the third annual such event in Wisconsin.  For those of you paying attention, that means that it was happening well before the tea parties started. 

Pathetic reporting.  On the bright side, 2,000 folks turning out (assuming the number is somewhat accurate) is pretty dang good. 

Wisconsin Debates Increasing Subsidies for Burials

Huh.

The Legislature’s budget committee is considering whether to expand a program that helps pay the funeral and burial expenses of low-income Wisconsin residents.

The Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday is expected to vote on a bill that would allow the program to pay for funerals and burials that cost up to $4,500 instead of the current $3,500.

The maximum funding for each claim would remain at $1,500. But the Department of Health Services says the expanded eligibility might increase claims by 15 percent, or by 500 per year.

The department estimates the bill might increase the program’s costs by $538,000 per year. It estimates the program cost roughly $7.8 million in 2009.

If you run the math, that means that the taxpayers subsidized roughly 5,200 funerals in 2009.  I couldn’t find death statistics for 2009, but there were 46,526 deaths in Wisconsin in 2008.  So the taxpayers are subsidizing roughly 11% of the funerals in Wisconsin.  The state poverty rate is at about 10.7%.  Interesting, no?

Breaking the Deals

Prickly situation.

“We’re going to do what we have to do to get a bill out of the House and Senate,” said James Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. As for Obama’s wish list of deletions: “We’ll certainly keep it in mind as we pull together a final bill.”

That tepid salute underscores the prickliness with which many senators have greeted what they consider Obama’s meddling in their business and raises questions about how successful the president will be in erasing the special projects from final legislation.

It also highlights a spat between a White House and Senate, dominated by the same party, that the president has ignited just as he needs to garner support to finally push his No. 1 legislative goal to passage over monolithic Republican opposition and nervous Democrats.

Obama’s proposal to eliminate state-specific items comes with polls finding heightened public opposition to backroom political deals. Republicans have been happy to fan that discontent. Many Democrats, particularly House moderates facing tight re-election battles this fall, are eager to dissociate themselves from such spending.

The president wants votes from House Democrats “who were deeply offended by those provisions in the Senate bill,” said Sheryl Skolnick, who analyzes federal health legislation for CRT Capital Group of Stamford, Conn. “Clearly the math was, ‘I gain more in the House by taking out those provisions than I lose in the Senate.’”

Obama has railed against the “ugly process” of cutting special deals, but the president and his top advisers were prime players in negotiations on the agreements to win votes and push the legislation forward.

Here’s the problem for Reid… he cut those deals to get the legislation passed.  Now, even if they reverse the deals, those senators can’t take their votes back and are hung out to dry.  If that happens, Reid will have zero credibility to make any deals in the future to get anything done.  Once again, Obama is wanting everyone else to take the pain and sacrifices for his benefit. 

Costly Census

It’s like they spend money just because they can.  Wait, it’s not “like” that.  That’s what it is. 

This week West Benders received a notification letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The letter read: “About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail. When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it promptly. Your response is important.”

  The letter is signed by Robert M. Groves, director of the U.S. Census Bureau.

  U.S. Census Bureau paid for the pre-sorted, firstclass mail postage and fees. The bulk-mailing supervisor at the West Bend Post Office said the cost was about 35 cents per letter. Regular postage is 44 cents.

  Don Zimmer is the local census office manager in Oshkosh. He said the Census Bureau mailed 123 million letters to households nationwide. At 35 cents postage, that’s about $43 million. The population in West Bend is 30,400.

  “We used global positioning systems to get local addresses and we sent out the form letter,” said Zimmer. “So as many residence we could identify that were occupied, those were the letters that went to people. Again they weren’t addressed to people but to housing units.”

  State Sen. Glenn Grothman of West Bend said this one more example of wasteful spending.

  “This just shows, one more time, how completely oblivious too many government officials are to spending other people’s money,” he said. “I would guess the advance letter will result in zero more people filling out their form.”

Suicide Pact?

Perhaps.

November Looking Good for Republicans in Wisconsin

Interesting.

The results show that 51% of likely voters favored Thompson and 39% favored Feingold. Nine percent of the likely voters were undecided.

In a matchup between Feingold and Republican Madison developer Terrence Wall, Feingold leads 47% to 32%.

The poll was directed by political scientist Ken Goldstein of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The survey of 600 randomly selected likely voters in Wisconsin was conducted from March 7-9 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

In the governor’s race, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker leads Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett 36% to 32%.The margin of error of the poll makes a Barrett-Walker race virtually even.

The gap between Walker and Republican home builder and former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann is wider, with Walker leading Neumann by 19 percentage points (46% to 27%.)

Walker’s lead is aided by his large advantage in the Milwaukee media market, where nearly 7 in 10 likely voters said they support Walker over Neumann. In the rest of the state, Neumann held a slight edge over Walker.

In a head-to-head race between Barrett and Neumann, the results show that it’s a dead heat. Barrett and Neumann are tied at 34%.

Schooled

Professional historian Victor Davis Hanson schools Tom Hanks. 

Much has been written of the recent Tom Hanks remarks to Douglas Brinkley in a Time magazine interview about his upcoming HBO series on World War II in the Pacific. Here is the explosive excerpt that is making the rounds today.

“Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as ‘yellow, slant-eyed dogs’ that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what’s going on today?”

Hanks may not have been quoted correctly; and his remarks may have been impromptu and poorly expressed; and we should give due consideration to the tremendous support Hanks has given in the past both to veterans and to commemoration of World War II; and his new HBO series could well be a fine bookend to Band of Brothers.  All that said, Hanks’ comments were sadly infantile pop philosophizing offered by, well,  an ignoramus.

Holder Withheld Legal Briefs from Senate

Seems like a contempt of Congress charge may be in order. 

Justice Department officials say that when senators were considering Eric Holder’s nomination to be attorney general last year, he didn’t given them all the legal briefs he had signed from his time in private practice.

Holder now has told the Senate Judiciary Committee about the lapse in turning over copies of the legal filings.

Fein Tunes

Sometimes when a politician attempts to look cool, they look like an idiot.  For example, do I really care what Senator Feingold likes to listen to on his iPod?  Let’s see, he voted for a ridiculous health care bill that is full of pork and would be incredibly destructive to our country.  His signature legislation restricting our freedom to speak during elections has been ruled largely unconstitutional.  He voted for massive deficits, tremendous spending, and tax hikes.  And I’m supposed to like him more because he digs Van Morrison? 

Um, no. 

Third District Candidates Profiled

It’s a fairly sharp contrast.  On one side, you have this:

“The biggest thing I’m bringing is leadership,” Duquaine said, pointing to his 20-plus years as a business owner. “I’ve balanced budgets for years, I’ve grown a business. I’d like to bring that experience to the city.”

[...]

  Duquaine said two issues made him decide to run for the Common Council. “The unacceptable unemployment rate in this city. That’s a huge concern for me.”

  He also believes the city can do a better job attracting and retaining businesses by creating a friendlier business climate. “If you do that it will lower the unemployment,” he said.

  As the owner of a masonry company that works on commercial properties around southeast Wisconsin, Duquaine said he has seen what other communities do to encourage development and would like West Bend to consider some of those ideas.

  “I would do whatever we can to promote our city and develop our city,” he said, “not only bringing in new business but do a better job maintaining the businesses we have here.”

On the other side you have this:

“I’m a totally independent candidate,” Salmon said. “I feel I can look at each issue facing the council, research information on that issue and make a decision independent of any outside agenda. I will make decisions that best represent the citizens of the third district and the citizens of West Bend.”

[...]

  Salmon said it is important to continue to improve taxpayers’ understanding of city issues. “I would work harder to keep citizens informed on how their govenment [sic] was working for them,” she said. “The city recently began streaming the council meetings over the Internet and I think that is a great start.”

Let’s see… business owner looking to improve the business climate and attract businesses against an “independent” candidate who wants to improve my understanding of city issues. 

Yeah, I’d vote for Duquaine.

Pulp Fiction

I just saw an advert on AMC that they will be airing Pulp Fiction at some point in the future (see how much I pay attention?).  I like Pulp Fiction.  It’s a good flick.  I can’t, however, see how it can be viewed on normal television.  Given the extent of violence, cussing, and other no-nos in the movie, how can it be viewed with any justice on normal TV?  It would be like watching Blazing Saddles on regular TV nowadays.  The entrails are left in a pile in the woods and all that is left if a lifeless carcass of its former self.