Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts

18 August 2011

Budget Cuts & Blaming

Reckon I'm on a budget kick, neighbor.  Maybe cause I gotta keep tighting my belt so much.  Anyway, I just read somethin' in the Washington Examiner.  Gotta love that internet thing.  Lets me read newspapers from all over.  'Course I got a heap of trouble trying to read that Le Parisien or Nasz Dziennik.  But I manage to find enough English writ papers around.

I was just readin' about President Obama's "non-campaign" trip up in corn country.  They say he's claimin' he "reversed the recession, avoided a de-pression and got the economy moving again" (all by himself don't ya know).  Kinda brings back memories of how Al Gore invented the internet (also all by himself).  Anyway, it didn't take but a heartbeat till he was back to blaming the economy on someone else.  Like them Arab uprisings and Japanese tsunamis and such.  Then the President says, "The problem is that we've got the kind of partisan brinksmanship that is willing to put party ahead of country."  That'd be his way of sayin' the Republicans done it.  Reckon he already forgot how he was vowing to veto any bill where Congress did NOT add more taxes.  And that was right up till 'bout 2 weeks before that famous default day the TV was talkin' about.   That man sure 'nough has a short memory.

OK, 'nough of that. What I really wanted to talk about was how we can get that federal budget back in line.  Reckon I don't really want to know what that "non-political" trip is costin' us.  But did you notice how he's gettin' around while not campaigning?  He's on a bus.  At first that seemed right friendly that he'd take a bus, just like some folk going to the State Fair.  But that ain't no ordinary bus, friend.  That there is "Greyhound One."   It got custom built by the Prevost company.  Yep, them's the folks that make the fancy buses for rock stars and millionaires.  And guess where that bus was made neighbor.  Quebec, Canada!  Guess we don't build buses here no more.  They say the Secret Service paid $1.1 million dollars for that bus.  And they bought a spare one too, so double that.  Must be one hell of a nice ridin' bus.  You'd think they coulda converted one of them yella school buses for a bunch less.  By the way, they didn't say if that price was before or after they added all their armor plating and fancy security stuff.

I know what you're thinkin' Sam, "What's a couple million greenbacks when the country is already trillions of dollars in debt."  Well neighbor, my long-gone Pappy used to say, "A penny saved is a penny earned."  We ain't savin' nothing are we?  And there's a bunch ot my neighbors ain't earnin' nothin' either.  You can bet this budget thing is gonna come up again, but till then, I am...
Justan O. Geezer

17 August 2011

Budget Cuts

Today I gotta tell ya about this neighbor lady I got.  She's a perty young thing.  Reckon you'd never guess she got growed younguns.  And you'd be equal surprised to find out she's a truck drivin' mama.  And that's the truth, Clyde.  She tells me there's a bunch of "down time" away from home cause of them "required rest breaks."  So, she puts the time to good use.

Seems she got tired of hearin' all that bullshit goin' 'round on TV and the internet.  She got real annoyed with stories about the President or Senators or government in general.  So she used that break-time to dig up some real information about what could be done to trim some of the fat in our federal budget.  She sent me some stuff here and even went so far as to say where she got it.  That way, I could see for myself.  Well, here goes neighbor.

    Governemt Salaries:
    US President            $400,000 + $50,000 non-taxable expenses
    Vice-President            $230,700 + $10,000 non-taxable expenses
    Speaker of the House        $223,500
    Majority/Minority Leaders    $193,400
    Senators & Representatives    $174,000
ref: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm

    Average Teachers Salaries:
    Elemtary Teacher         $40,088
    High School Teacher         $43,389
ref: http://www.payscale.com/research/US/All_K-12_Teachers/Salary

    Salaries for Active Duty Soldiers (with 4 years experience)
    PFC (E3)            $23,400
    Sergeant (E5)            $29,380
    Staff Sergeant (E6)        $32,742
    2nd Lieutenant (O1)        $42,030
    Captain (O3)            $59,422
ref: http://www.goarmy.com/benefits/money/basic-pay-active-duty-soldiers.html

So what do think neighbor?  Where should we start cuttin' that budget fat?  'Course who's gonna believe a truck drivin' lady and me?  I am...
Justan O. Geezer