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Little attention has been paid to the transformation now going on at the Department of Defense. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is on a mission to control the spiraling cost of defense spending which has been out of control.
The Defense Secretary wisely realizes that with spiraling federal deficits and federal debt which is out of control will have a detrimental impact on future defense budgets if not reign in. He commented last week the spigot of increased spending at the Department of Defense has ended and the time has come to get spending under control.
The biggest culprit to reigning in the cost of defense spending is Congress! Too often billions of dollars are wasted on cost overruns or weapons systems that are not need, but unfortunately the Pentagon is forced to receive equipment it doesn’t need or want. Any weapon system you look at eliminating you first must find out what state or district that system in manufactured in and you will find a representative or senator fighting to retain it.
The C-17 cargo aircraft is a prime example of this abuse. The Air Force didn’t want this aircraft but because it was built in Long Beach both California Senators and others fought to keep it alive. The Air Force was then forced to pay an additional cost of 2.7 billion dollars for a system it didn’t want or need. The list goes on and on of Congress looking after themselves instead of what’s best for the nation.
No wonder that nation has a ballooning federal debt; Congress just cannot stop spending the taxpayers money. As the secretary reiterated this can’t go on forever! Even the Joint Forces Command issued a study back in February and listed the national debt as a threat to the security of the nation, but Congress just places its head in the sand and continues outrageous spending.
If this continues the nation is headed for a financial meltdown just like what has been going on Europe. Who will then bail us out?
Yesterday the president spoke at a press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and reaffirmed U.S. commitment toward Afghanistan or at least until July 2011 troop withdrawal date.
In the press conference president Obama stated, “ When I came into office, I made it absolutely clear that I intended to resource an effective strategy in Afghanistan and work with the Afghan government so that we have a strong, stable, prosperous Afghanistan. And I've used whatever political capital I have to make the case to the American people that this is in our national security interest that it's absolutely critical that we succeed on this mission.”
In the same press conference he also stated,” having put in more troops in Afghanistan over the last several months in order to break the momentum of the Taliban, that beginning in 2011, July, we will start bringing those troops down and turning over more and more responsibility to Afghan security forces that we are building up.”
What strategy is President Obama perusing? His wavering support for the mission by giving an arbitrary date has only emboldened the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban continue to intimidate local Afghan’s not to support the Americans because if you do we will kill you and your family! Everyone knows no matter what happens the Americans will leave just like they did after the Russians pulled out in 1989.
Taliban threats are real they know after we leave what will happen to them? Why would any Afghan risk his life or the lives their family by providing any support to the U.S.? This president has no clue or is just appeasing to his political base as liberal Democrats criticized President Bush for diverting attention to Iraq instead of fighting in Afghanistan. Now they speak a different tune when they control the power strings.
This policy of wanting to have it both ways will produce disastrous results and will only create instability and not bring any resolution to the conflict. This is now President Obama’s war and no one else!
For the past couple of weeks riots have spread too many Greek cities in its financial debt crisis, but if the U.S. is not careful it will spread to the shores of America. The main culprit is living beyond ones means and massive public spending that couldn’t be sustained over time.
Does this sound familiar! The United States has continued spending beyond what is unsustainable and continues to enlarge the public sector to astronomical heights and now payment is due.
Five of the largest states in the union are teetering on bankruptcy to include many of the major cities in the U.S. Los Angeles, the second largest city in America is virtually bankrupt after years of enlarging the public sector with lucrative pension and health benefits that the private sector doesn’t enjoy.
Over generous benefits, pensions that can’t be sustained is affecting the economic situation in America and if we don’t start doing something now we will be facing the same fate as Greece.
California is entering a gubernatorial election and little or no attention has been raised how the candidates would solve the $500 billion unfunded pension system or how to balance the skyrocketing budget shortfall?
All we get is standard campaign rhetoric and little real world solutions to solving this mess that both political parties created and now have no clue in how to solve it. Americans better start waking up to the fact that both political parties created this mess and no one is immune from placing America in this precarious situation.
Everyone blames each other, even President Obama blames the Republicans for this mess but his administration will soon spend more than all previous presidents combined, and that includes President Bush!
We face enormous fiscal problems with Social Security and Medicare basically broke! Now we have another entitlement program, health care which passed this year using “Enron” accounting numbers which will give us one more unfunded entitlement program.
This election we better not listen to snake oil salesman and start asking those running for public office to start answering how they would solve these issues? Let’s stop listening to what we want to hear and start holding government at all levels accountable!
After the disaster on Wall Street yesterday April’s unemployment numbers are out with employers adding 290,000 -- but the unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent, according to a Labor Department report released Friday.
Both political parties took what they wanted from this report. Democrats cheered for the past four months jobs have been created, while Republicans looked at the rise in unemployment to 9.7% from the previous 9.7%.
This was good news for the beleaguered U.S. economy, but we have a long way to go with many troubling signs on the horizon. The debt crisis that has infected Greece and the potential to spread to the economies of Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland will be of concern to the U.S. economy and U.S. banks.
The spiraling national debt that both political parties inflicted on the country needs to be addressed but the Obama Administration is waiting until December when his debt commission releases its report.
The finance of many of the states is in doubt with at least four of them virtually bankrupt with the largest state California at the top of the list.
No one can celebrate anything, or blame each other! Both parties sent America to the economic brink and it will take time to alleviate the excesses of the past. That's if both Republicans and Democrats don’t mess it up any more!
After posting a huge loss Freddie Mac is asking for an additional $10.6 billion from the federal government. This is a strong indicator that the housing sector keeps continuing to be a problem and has not stabilized.
The mortgage base financed company had been taken over by the federal government in September 2008, when an infusion of billions of dollars helped rescue the trouble mortgage lender. With the new request it would bring the total federal bailout funding to $61.3 billion and $136.5 billion to both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
The problem with this request is why wasn’t this part of the financial reform measure now before Congress? How can you reform only parts of it but the one element untouched when the housing sector was the lead impetus that caused the financial meltdown?
It’s time Congress start getting serious about financial reform and stop demonizing sectors that you don’t like but leaving other sectors that you support untouched.
This is why the public has such low opinion of Washington. We get rid of one corrupt party and now we have another corrupt party take its place. One only has to follow the flow of money to both mortgage lenders and you will see why nothing gets done.
No matter what Washington states the bailouts continue! Should we be surprised!
The Dow tumbled 225 points today from concerns Greece debt crisis was too late and not enough to fix the nations trouble economy. Fear engulfed the market that this has the potential to spread across Europe and to the United States upsetting the fragile U.S. economy.
The United States should be worried as like Greece, America has accumulated too much debt and continues its reckless spending with no end in sight.
All across the nation the reckless spending of the past is finally catching up and politicians from both parties have no idea how to solve it. Too often we only here partisan spin with regard to controlling spending, Democrats and Republicans blame each other but both are responsible for the fiscal mess the nation finds itself.
The whole debate is misguided on financial reform. Congress blames Wall Street for the economic crisis which there is merit but what about holding Congress responsible as well! Follow the money on the millions given to Congress from the financial sector, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae the mortgage lenders; to include almost a million dollars given to then Senator Obama.
The financial crisis should have been awake up call for the U.S. but sadly nothing has been done just more spending. One only has to look at the fiscal policy of many of the states and you see why the nation’s economic future is in jeopardy.
Too often rewarding special interests groups was the order of the day, instead of sound economic policy. Public employee’s benefited at the expense of ordinary Americans. One only has to look how pensions and benefits were doled out without any thought how this was to be sustained over time.
California is facing a $500 billion unfunded pension system that has to be paid but what individuals don’t know that it will come from the taxpayers to make up the shortfall. Follow the government corruption scandals in New Jersey, New York, Illinois and the major metropolitan cities of the country such as Chicago and Detroit. In each instant the abuse of the public funds is done right criminal.
Government has been conduct “Enron” style accounting and virtually had ponzi style economic policy that only the financial meltdown exposed. It’s time we hold politicians accountable for their actions and only then will we have our country back.
It takes us to be informed and not influenced by snake oil salesman.
The immigration law that passed in Arizona set off a firestorm in the United States and focused the need for comprehensive immigration reform. The only problem with the entire argument on immigration that has been left out of the debate is what role does Mexico play in this?
If one studies the history of immigration you will find it was predicated on internal factors in ones country of origin. Persecutions or a desire for a better life led many to the U.S., my own father is a case in point as he immigrated here after the devastation of Europe inflicted by World War II.
Current immigrants continue to stream into America, with many coming from regions or areas of the world that have been different in the past. Few are coming from Western Europe, but we still see those hailing from Eastern European countries.
The vast amount of immigrants now come to America from Latin America because of the same reasons that drove millions before ; political oppression, economic opportunities, and finally stagnation of corruption in one’s own country.
If we are truly going to have immigration reform Mexico has to be part of the equation. Mexico complains how we treat those heading north, but what has Mexico done to improve the life’s of the ordinary Mexican people.
Mexico doesn’t care all they want is more people fleeing north as the second largest revenue source for Mexico after oil is immigrant money flowing back from the United States. Why would Mexico want to stop this trend?
If Mexico ends the massive corruption that permeates throughout the country, ends the abuse of its own citizens, ends the culture of economic enslavement in poverty, ends the violence which engulfs various regions then people will feel secure in their own country.
It’s easy to blame America for one’s own failure the real fault is what Mexico doing to its own people!
