Why don’t we know anything about the finances of Buffett’s secretary?
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The most important paycheck in the world
Fear not. Three other plans prove we can balance our finances without tax hikes. And Boehner says no to lifting the debt limit without real spending cuts.
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Surprise, Surpise. Liberals’ Budget Raises Your Taxes
Well, we’re gonna need booming economic growth, and frankly an increasingly globalized immigration policy, if we don’t go bankrupt first. At WSJ , ” Poll Finds Support Lacking for Entitlement Reductions “: Less than a quarter of Americans support trimming Social Security or Medicare to tackle the country’s budget deficit, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll that illustrates the challenge facing lawmakers seeking voter support for altering entitlement programs. The poll, conducted between Feb. 24 and 28, found strong opposition for cuts to these entitlement programs across all age groups and ideologies. Even tea party supporters, by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, declared cuts to Social Security “unacceptable.” The poll, however, revealed willingness by some respondents to make sacrifices to keep the programs from going broke. Well over half of Americans favor bumping the retirement age to 69 by 2075, up from 66 now. An even larger share supports reducing retirement and Medicare payments to wealthier Americans. The opposition against entitlement cuts comes four months after voters elected a crop of governors and conservative federal lawmakers who campaigned against government spending. Congressional Republicans have focused so far on cuts to discretionary spending. But a small group of U.S. senators in both parties has begun talks over changes to entitlement programs, as well as to the tax code. House Republicans want to make entitlement reductions a key part of their next budget, while several likely 2012 GOP candidates vow to propose ways to shore up the finances of Social Security and Medicare as part of any campaign. But Republican Bill McInturff and Democrat Peter Hart, the pollsters who conducted the survey, said it raised warning signs for anyone proposing cuts to those programs, which provide retirement benefits to seniors and help pay for their health-care, and to Medicaid, a health plan for the poor. The costs of those programs, which already make up 43% of federal spending, are expected to balloon in coming years. More at the link . Before you know it, folks won’t be able to retire with full benefits until their 70s. Maybe that’s good, but a lot of people are physically unable to work that long. And there’s lots of economic pessimism at the poll. Check this out: Americans remain clearly torn on the big questions of the national debt, government spending and the role of government in promoting jobs. Eight in 10 respondents said the growing federal deficit threatened to affect their family’s future, but 62% also feared the effect of widespread cuts to government spending. Meanwhile, by a wide margin, more people saw job creation as a higher priority than deficit reduction. It’s a classic problem of the modern welfare state. As government grows to accommodate increasing demands for economic security, the political system gets locked into a collective action problem that disables the systems capacity to respond to economic crises. The going would be a tad bit easier if the voters dump the Democrats in 2012, which will be tough but not impossible, especially of economic growth remains tepid. See, ” Federal deficit on track for a record this fiscal year: Government debt to exceed U.S. economy .”
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Third Rail: Americans Oppose Cutting Entitlements
…and by “change,” I mean extended unemployment benefits : [Scott] Mathewson, a San Jose electrician who has been out of work for more than two years, spends most days in an online chat room he created to lobby for another round of unemployment benefits. In this election year, he and other jobless workers are trying to turn the nation’s 14.9 million unemployed into a political force. “This has made me 110% more politically active,” said Mathewson, 45, who in March exhausted his 99 weeks of jobless benefits, the maximum available. I know I’m going to get in trouble for saying this, but — speaking from experience — your chances of finding work dramatically increase if you don’t spend “most days” in an online chat room. Mathewson is part of a growing army of so-called 99ers, the estimated 3.5 million unemployed workers who will have fallen off the jobless benefit rolls by the end of the year. Their prospects for finding new work are dim. The U.S. economy continues to shed jobs and the national unemployment rate is 9.6%; the August jobless rate in California was 12.4%. With their finances in tatters and little hope of finding work anytime soon, Mathewson and other 99ers are pressing policymakers for additional aid. On Wednesday, Mathewson’s group plans to join with 16 similar grass-roots, Internet-based organizations to blitz members of the U.S. Senate with faxes and e-mails. Calling themselves the American 99ers Union, they’re urging lawmakers to approve a stalled bill granting an additional 20 weeks of benefits to long-term jobless workers in hard-hit states. Click here to read the full story from the LA Times .
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Long-term unemployed ‘union’ campaigns for change
Every year for the past few years, I’ve noted the annual Al Sharpton Suck-Up — the annual grievance-mongering convention held by the race hustler’s non-profit “National Action Network.” It’s a purported grass-roots activist network that only seems to surface in the news once a year when Democrat leaders — and at least one RNC chairman — show up to the convention to pay homage and kiss Sharpton’s ring. Biggest non-shocker of the year: The “National Action Network” is a fiscal mess, delinquent on taxes, and has run afoul of campaign finance laws. The NY Post reports: An accounting firm hired by Al Sharpton’s National Action Network found the civil-rights group in such financial disarray that it flunked its record-keeping — and may not even survive, The Post has learned. The scathing critique was spelled out in a hard-hitting internal audit of NAN’s books, a copy of which was obtained by The Post. “The organization has suffered recurring decreases in net assets — and has been dependent upon advances from related parties and the nonpayment of payroll tax obligations — to maintain continuity,” the firm KBL concluded in an April 2 audit of NAN’s 2008 financial records, the most recent available. The audit, which was submitted to NAN’s board of directors, warned, “These circumstances create substantial doubt about the organization’s ability to continue.” KBL said it was “unable to form an opinion” on the accuracy of NAN’s financial figures “because of inadequacies in the organization’s accounting records.” In 2008, federal prosecutors decided to drop a criminal probe into the finances of Sharpton and NAN. But Sharpton — who also has a lucrative syndicated radio show and a speech-making and consulting business — agreed to pay back more than $2 million in overdue personal and NAN taxes. The audit said NAN still owed $1.348 million in delinquent city, state and federal taxes and penalties at the end of 2008. The IRS has filed dozens of liens against NAN over the past decade, including one as recently as April of this year. Last year, the Federal Elections Commission slapped Sharpton with $285,000 fine, in part for illegally using NAN funds to cover the costs of his 2004 presidential campaign. Thanks to Sharpton’s race shield, NAN has engaged in financial monkey business for years with impunity. Yes, monkey business. Sue me. *** Heh. JWF on Sharpton’s money troubles: “This ought to qualify him as a financial adviser to his pal Obama.”
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Al Sharpton: Race charlatan, financial charlatan
At LAT : On July 30, Kevin Morrissey printed a note, gathered his identification and called the Charlottesville, Va., police to report a shooting at the coal tower, a local landmark. When they arrived, it was Morrissey they found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, his papers laid out neatly beside him. Morrissey was the 52-year-old managing editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, an award-winning literary journal published by the University of Virginia. He had worked at the journal since 2004, handling accounting, payments, contracts and other administrative details. “Kevin’s job was his life,” said co-worker Waldo Jaquith. Morrissey’s death might have affected only his small circle of friends and colleagues, but it has also had an unexpected impact, spurring the university to conduct an audit of the finances and management of the VQR. And now, a month after Morrissey’s death, the Virginia Quarterly Review is on indefinite hiatus. The move follows a stream of reports and extended online discussion about Morrissey’s suicide. Those reports have focused on the VQR workplace and have been critical of the magazine’s editor, Ted Genoways. Genoways, who has been locked out of the office by university officials since Morrissey’s death, has been labeled a “workplace bully” in media reports with few actual details. The “Today” show reported that Genoways was “under investigation for allegedly driving one of his employees to suicide.” But although contributing editors, writers and associates found Genoways “professional, tactful and respectful” — as two dozen wrote in an August letter of support — it is clear from comments after Morrissey’s death that most of his five-person staff was, to some degree, unhappy. It is their complaints that have dominated media accounts of Morrissey’s death and the subsequent cloud over the VQR. RTWT.
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Suicide at Virginia Quarterly Review
