Steve

Will Everything Really Be On the Table?

This entry was posted in obama on by

pelosi says everything should be on the table:

Obama announced last week that he would convene a “fiscal responsibility summit” in February to focus on long-term problems with the economy and the skyrocketing costs of benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
“I support what he wants to do, to have a summit of that kind,” Pelosi said Sunday. “We will have our own initiatives in the Congress to work with him on that.”
Pelosi said everything should be on the table, including benefit cuts.
“The only thing we didn’t want to put on the table is eliminating Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” she said.

Of course, benefit cuts would run counter to the incoming administrations desire to increase spending:

“Our overall focus is going to be on increasing spending,” Summers said in a broadcast interview. “Beyond that, there’s going to be a substantial tax cut for the American people.”

We will know that real change may have come when the defense budget is on the cutting table taking some serious 12 figure whacks!

Via Corrente.

Buy Your Roquefort While You Can

This entry was posted in bush administration Economics Government on by

Despite what Cookie Jill says, this kind of crap is not unique to the bush administration:

Less than a week before it leaves office, the Bush administration has sparked anger across the Atlantic by tripling the import duty rate on roquefort cheese to 300%, a move which the US hopes will “shut down trade” in the sheep’s milk product by making it prohibitively expensive.

It is a thing of governments and various rent seekers looking for unearned treasure.

In a free country, a free world, there are no tarriffs. Individuals and groups of individuals voluntarily trade goods and services without the interference of third parties unless force or fraud have been used in the transaction