Free Republic

“The opaque earmarking process paired with a series of examples of corruption and self-aggrandizement has left taxpayers frustrated.”

California's finances have tanked so badly that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is considering calling an emergency session of the Legislature within the next month to reopen the very budget that lawmakers just passed - 85 days late. On Wednesday, the "Big Five" - Schwarzenegger, Democratic Senate leader Don Perata, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and the legislators' Republican counterparts - Senate Minority Leader Dave Cogdill and Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines - are scheduled to sit down to formulate a strategy if they need to reopen the budget. The threat appears to be threefold:A. The national credit crunch: The price of short-term...

How much will $700 billion get you? Roughly speaking, the widely publicized cost of the financial bailout … er, rescue package … is equal to seven Apollo programs, or 70 state-of-the-art atom-smashers. The magnitude of the figures being thrown around is so much easier to understand when you use our currency conversion chart for mega-projects. (snip) Does all this make you feel better about the $700 billion, or worse? Feel free to weigh in with your comments below.

The financial-market implosion and the coming transformation of the securities industry pose a risk to the national economy. But they especially imperil New York State, which for decades has built its budgets on the expectation of raising ever-greater revenues from a Wall Street that now no longer exists. New York was once a great industrial state. But for the past quarter of a century, with occasional bear-market interruptions, the state's dependence on Wall Street has grown as manufacturing has shriveled. Last year, nearly 18% of private wages in New York State came from the securities industry. That was up from...

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California's top finance officials reacted cautiously Friday to congressional approval of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package. They have been worried that the credit market will hurt the state's ability to get short-term loans to cover basic operating expenses, a step California takes each fall until the bulk of its tax revenue arrives in the spring. Even with the bailout plan passing, Schwarzenegger predicted a difficult path ahead in the financial markets. "California's not out of the woods yet," he said during a news conference in San Diego, noting that California...

I'm sorry for the vanity but I have a question for our economists on this site. I'm in the process of moving at least some of my investments into more secure holdings. However, I was wondering if it would be possible that pumping $1T into the economy could trigger hyperinflation. I've been reading through this issue on various sites and it seems that some feel that hyperinflation could be trigger by the government failure to find buyers or pumping large amounts of dollars into the economy without proper tax revenues. Has there been any serious thought given about this issue...

After a tumultuous year, lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger finally get a break from one another – and, boy, do they need it. Democrats grew angry this week after Schwarzenegger finished vetoing 35 percent of the bills on his desk, a modern record. They're particularly incensed that the Republican governor issued a standard message for 136 of his 415 vetoes in which he blamed the state's 85-day budget delay. Schwarzenegger's unusual veto approach capped a divisive two months in which he turned combative with lawmakers as budget talks broke down. The governor drew their ire in late July after signing...

THE 1992 CAMPAIGN; Arkansas Facing a Deficit, Clinton LearnsGov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas was told by state officials yesterday that the $2 billion state budget may fall as much as $20 million short of revenue projections and that he may have to institute budget cuts. ... Mr. Clinton charactarized the budget problems as minor, caused by a decline in corporate revenue and an increase in state tax refunds. Like most states, Arkansas is legally barred from carrying a budget deficit. He said he would announce by Friday which areas of state government would be most affected. ... "We once had...

Just heard from Rep. John Linder on Boortz that Senator McCain deferred to Mr. Boehner on the Bailout Bill. It may have been a politically expedient option, but he 'did' defer to the Conservatives and we 'did' prevail, yesterday. John Linder also said the money IS NOT NECESSARY for an effective solution. The easiest, and most important change, can be done with a Clinton-esque stroke of the pen. It is reverting the Mark to Market rule BACK to the same rule that was in effect for over 200 years. It basically sets an asset's imputed value 'at' the 'purchased' amount,...

Military members will get a 3.9 percent pay raise in January, but the fiscal 2009 defense authorization nearing final passage will not support a House-passed plan to set military pay raises through 2013 a half percentage point higher than private sector wage growth. The new defense bill will protect working-age military retirees from a final try by the Bush administration to raise Tricare fees, deductibles and drug co-payments. Instead, beneficiaries of every age will see new enticements to stay healthy through no-fee check-ups, age-appropriate disease screening, smoking cessation help and other “wellness” programs. And, for a fourth straight year, the...

New fallout from the state's historic budget standoff came Friday in the form of gubernatorial vetoes, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger blocked 18 bills and blamed his actions on the 85-day budget delay. The Republican governor signed a uniform veto message for 18 of the 27 bills he vetoed Friday that suggested he did not have enough time to review low-priority bills. Among the vetoed proposals were requirements that pet stores use humane methods in euthanizing rodents and restrictions on uses of human remains in exhibitions. "The historic delay in passing the 2008-2009 State Budget has forced me to prioritize the...

Oh, say it ain't so, Joe Biden must have missed a memo from the Messiah. USA Today is reporting that Biden has requested $51 million in earmarks for Delaware in a spending bill. A $630 billion spending bill nearing final approval in Congress includes $6.6 billion for thousands of lawmakers' pet projects, including $51.5 million requested by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden when both presidential candidates have sworn off seeking any money.

WASHINGTON – As Congress tried to cobble together a plan to spend huge sums on a financial bailout, lawmakers also moved yesterday toward final approval of an omnibus spending bill with more than 2,300 pet projects, including a $2 million study of animal hibernation. Many lawmakers had promised to go on a diet, but their appetite for the pet projects, known as earmarks, has returned as Congress finishes its work for the year and Election Day looms less than six weeks away. Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group, calculates that earmarks account for $6.6 billion of the omnibus...

While congressional leaders wrangled over the details of a federal bailout for Wall Street that could cost taxpayers an extraordinary $700 billion, the U.S House quietly passed an omnibus-spending bill for nearly the same amount Wednesday. The Senate is expected to pass the $630 billion measure by week’s end. Senate leaders wringing their hands over where to find $700 billion for the Wall Street bailout might start with the fine print of the omnibus bill: The measure includes more than $6.6 billion in pork-barrel spending. The 2,000-plus earmarks fill 752 pages attached to the 357-page spending bill. Sen. Ted Stevens,...

While everyone focuses on the $700 billion bailout, your Congress is busy passing bills filled with billions of dollars of earmarks. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey forced Congress to vote on a stop-gap continuing resolution that is worth $1 trillion. And the beauty of it ... your Representatives had less than 24 hours to review the contents of this bill before voting. And, no amendments were allowed to be passed. This is the same appropriations bill that will bailout the auto industry. It also contains $600 billion for Military, Defense and Homeland Security, as well as $23 billion in...

During the annual – or, perhaps, perennial – impasse over the state budget, those in and around the Capitol play a little guessing game, called the budget pool, on when it will be enacted. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the budget Tuesday with none of the usual hoopla, symbolizing official embarrassment over both its record tardiness and its failure to close the chronic deficit. And now there's a new guessing game: How long until it falls out of balance? The answer: One nanosecond. Or as state Controller John Chiang says, "Today we adopted a $103.4 billion budget that was out of...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a $103.4 billion general-fund spending plan Tuesday in his office with little fanfare, officially ending the state's longest-ever budget delay at 85 days. The Republican governor vetoed $510 million in line-item expenditures. Schwarzenegger's signature ensures the state will begin paying nursing homes, community colleges and state vendors for services. It remains unclear when the state will begin rehiring the 10,000 temporary and part-time workers Schwarzenegger terminated July 31. "While California is certain to face a difficult budget situation again next year, this budget does not take money out of people's paychecks or borrow from voter-approved local...

Link to Drudge Headline: Dems write $500 billion spending bill -- in secret... SF Chronicle Headline: Pentagon budget, disaster aid set to advance Congress is scrambling to pass the Pentagon budget, aid for flood and hurricane victims and $25 billion in loans for Detroit automakers in a late-session burst of activity that's flying under the radar compared with efforts to bail out Wall Street.~~snip~~A stopgap bill must pass to avoid a government shutdown, so Democrats are viewing it as a locomotive to pull past a skeptical White House measures such as the automaker loan and a doubling of home heating...

Right now millions of Americans are standing around the water cooler, talking at the gym, grabbing a fast bite to eat or a coffee and talking with someone else about how bad the economy is, how stupid and worthless congress is, how greed perverts people at the top of many corporations and whether or not either of the two Presidential nominees has the ability to take on the economy, health care, American energy independence or this nations defense in January. Well folks, it’s time that we... that is you, me, I, us, take a stand and realize that WE are...

Looking at the federal budget -- the five or six major items are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense and interest on the debt. All are going up, as tax revenues fall. Add the cost of two wars and a bailout of U.S. banks that some estimate will cost $1 trillion to $2 trillion, and we appear to be looking at budget deficits ad infinitum.

By Charles Lomeli Lomeli is the Solano County treasurer-tax collector-county clerk. Guest commentary The residents of California should know that Article 4, Section 12 (c) 3 of the California Constitution reads as follows: "The Legislature shall pass the budget bill by midnight on June 15th of each year." The Legislature passed a budget bill on Sept. 15, three months late. The residents of the state have suffered unnecessarily due to this inaction. The state economy, one of the largest in the world, has been harmed by this inaction. The lack of a budget has impacted the residents in Solano County....

Frustrated by the longest budget impasse in California history, Democratic leaders are planning another ballot measure to end the two-thirds vote requirement in the Legislature to pass a state budget. Voters, by a 2-to-1 margin, defeated a similar effort in 2004 that would have also lowered the vote threshold to raise taxes from two-thirds to 55 percent. But incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass say this year's budget – now 84 days late – underscores the need to re-visit the issue in 2010, or next year if there's a special election. California is one...

Yes, that was a puff of white smoke floating over the Capitol Thursday afternoon; nearly 100 days past the state constitutional deadline for enacting a state budget and after false starts and detours too numerous to list, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders agreed on a spending and revenue package. Unless there's another political hitch – and one can never discount that possibility – the deal will be ratified by the Legislature today and legislators can go wherever they go when they're not fouling up things in Sacramento, including an assemblyman who's scheduled to marry a television anchorwoman on Sunday....

"Arnold has lost his mind." That's what one long-time GOP budget aide in California told me in response to news that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will veto the state budget. Everyone is confused by this latest action, because just a few weeks ago the governor was running around the state insisting on a tax increase to balance the budget. Now that conservative Republicans have won a major victory in forcing the majority Democrats to pass a no-tax-increase version, Arnold seethes that he wants a budget that puts "our fiscal house in order, and I promise the people of California that I...

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders have reached a deal that would avert the governor's planned Friday veto of the state budget and allow California to begin paying its bills again.

Public criticism of the $106-billion spending plan emboldens Schwarzenegger to seek more concessions. SACRAMENTO -- State lawmakers' will to override a budget veto began to falter Wednesday, emboldening Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to press them for more concessions. Tough talk from lawmakers about quickly overriding Schwarzenegger's expected veto subsided as Republicans expressed reluctance to vote for borrowing from taxpayers -- a provision of the budget Democrats passed without them.   Budget battle: The full story California bills vulnerable to veto by governor The borrowing, in the form of a 10% increase in state tax withholding to be refunded later without interest,...

Arnold Schwarzenegger has talked a good game about ending "crazy deficit spending" for five years, but he's been curiously unwilling to confront the Legislature over the state's hopelessly tangled budget. Belatedly, however, Schwarzenegger may be discovering his inner action movie hero, declaring "enough is enough," vowing to veto the ill-conceived budget that lawmakers approved early Tuesday morning, demanding big changes, and even threatening to reject "hundreds of bills" unrelated to the budget if the Legislature overrides his veto. It sets up a historic confrontation between the governor and legislators of both parties who have, it would appear, set aside their...

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he will not sign the compromise budget proposal California lawmakers are considering unless they make more changes. His letter to the four legislative leaders says he wants more money put in a rainy day fund and tighter controls on when that money could be spent.

All of a sudden, lawmakers are in a rush. They've had 11 weeks to pass a budget. Now they are preparing to slam one through as soon as this evening. Why the hurry? They don't want the sunshine. The "get-out-of-town" budget deal they've hatched seems to be so based on shaky presumptions and gimmicks that lawmakers don't want to give the public and the media time to vet it. Otherwise it would implode. It should. Precise details are still sketchy, but to reduce the bulk of the $15.2 billion deficit, lawmakers would make about $9 billion in spending cuts. The...

Legislative leaders said today they at last have a compromise deal on an 11-week-late state budget that calls for no tax increases, no borrowing from local governments or other state special funds -- and which makes no one happy. Emerging from a weekend meeting in the office of Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill, the quartet declined to give specific details of their compromise plan, saying they wanted to talk to their respective caucuses first. But they said the plan closes the $15.2 billion gap in the $103.4 billion budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 with $9 billion...

California lawmakers keep breaking records. Earlier this month, the Legislature surpassed the mark for state budget futility. Now Californians have given their legislators the worst rating in recorded state history. A Field Poll released Thursday showed only 15 percent of registered voters give the 120 lawmakers passing marks, while 73 percent disapprove of their job performance. "This is the lowest job (approval) rating recorded for anybody from any institution," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the 62-year-old Field Poll. "No one has ever gotten this low. Even Richard Nixon." The record budget standoff – now 74 days into the fiscal year...

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- The summer's been a bummer for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although he still likes to say being governor of California is the best job he's ever had, Schwarzenegger has faced near-constant criticism from all sides in the state's drawn-out fiscal crisis. It's the same type of crisis he promised to lead the state out of when he jumped from Hollywood into politics five years ago, replacing former Gov. Gray Davis and promising to "blow up the boxes" of state government. Forget the GOP national stage for the moment: Schwarzenegger put off any plans to appear on the campaign...

The national average income as of 2007 was, according to a census.gov PDF, $50,233 (see page 14). A dinkytown.net tool puts this at approximately $5762 in federal income tax for a single, male, head of the household. Note that this is just your income tax. No sales taxes or any other type of tax is included here. Additionally, this does not include state, county, or municipal tax, so you most likely pay much more (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington state, and Wyoming are the only states that don’t have a state income tax, so chances...

Ever since the California Taxpayers' Association endorsed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget -- which includes a temporary 1-cent sales tax hike -- conservative Republicans have gone on the offensive to discredit the 82-year-old taxpayers organization. The president of a rival taxpayer association said the group had been "rolled" by the governor. A regional vice-chairman of the Republican Party mocked them as "TaxCal." And on Tuesday, 31 of the 32 Assembly Republicans co-signed a letter blasting the group for making "a cynical political calculation" in supporting the governor's plan, which calls for the a permanent quarter-cent sales tax decrease after the...

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The budget deficit will jump by $246 billion to $407 billion this year, the Congressional Budget Office estimates in a report released Tuesday." "Over the long run, growing budget deficits and the resulting increases in federal debt would lead to slower economic growth," the agency said. Last year, the budget deficit was $161 billion. The government's fiscal year ends Sept. 30. The agency attributes the jump to "a substantial increase in spending and a halt in the growth of tax revenues.""

Majority Democrats today predictably voted down Senate Republicans' state budget plan which relied on borrowing and deeper cuts in lieu of new taxes. With 27 votes needed for approval in the 40-member Senate, 13 Republicans supported the measure and 21 Democrats opposed it. Lawmakers now have defeated three plans put forward -- a version of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal, one by legislative Democrats and today's GOP plan. The state has gone 70 days into the fiscal year without an approved budget, blocking billions of dollars in state payments to community colleges, health and social service providers and vendors who do...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has tried to cut state worker pay to the federal minimum wage until a state budget is done. He's tried laying off more than 10,000 part-time and temporary state workers. He's tried calling on voters to demand action from their legislators. He's tried calling for bipartisan cooperation. He's tried suggesting that lawmakers are cowards. He's tried abandoning his determination not to raise taxes. He's tried threatening to veto all bills. Still, California is officially in uncharted budget territory, without a spending plan for the 2008-09 fiscal year that began July 1. In search of a way to...

As if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't have enough troubles with the state's $17.2 billion budget mess, now comes word that there may be a move afoot to recall him. Well-placed Sacramento sources tell us the state's politically powerful and well-financed prison guards union has lawyers drawing up language for a recall initiative. Word is, the union will decide within the next couple of weeks whether to hit the streets with petitions. Recalling Schwarzenegger - who himself rode into office with the 2003 recall of then-Gov. Gray Davis - is probably a long shot at best. Still, Schwarzenegger has angered fellow...

This week, the state budget impasse took on a poignant dimension with detailed coverage of the human toll of Sacramento's fiscal paralysis. The most alarming stories involve nonprofit health care providers under contract to the state to help tens of thousands of ailing residents. Without a budget, these providers are now being forced en masse to borrow money from any willing party to keep operating and keep their clients healthy. But what these stories often left out is the state's ability to ameliorate this pain even without a budget. If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature were willing, stopgap funding...

Sacramento - -- The state Senate will vote today on a budget by Senate leader Don Perata that's similar to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest spending plan for California that's 60 days late. But whether Perata will get two Republican votes needed in addition to unanimous support from Democrats to meet the two-thirds requirement in the Senate remains unclear. One significant issue is the Oakland Democrat's proposal to increase the sales tax by a penny per dollar for three years. Republicans have said they will not support any tax increases to help erase the $17.2 billion budget gap that includes $2...

Democrats and Republicans have scripted their conventions as tightly as possible. But after delegates return home with buttons, badges and banners, the curtain will rise on a more unruly drama: the fall session of Congress. And it could affect the November election more than the conventions.The House and Senate return to Washington Monday, Sept. 8. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hope it will be a short session, ending on Sept. 26. That will allow members to go home and campaign, not to return until after Election Day. Good luck.Congress hasn't yet passed any one of...

Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who promised not to sign any bills until lawmakers reach a budget deal, reversed his position today and signed a bill for a statewide bullet train system that he strongly supports. The governor also wants to make exceptions for three other proposals that he has been promoting: budget reform; changing the state lottery to allow California to borrow against future ticket sales; and a bond proposal for water infrastructure. The high-speed rail legislation will replace a $10 billion bond measure on the November ballot with a revised version of the proposal that makes the bullet...

Some things never change in the Golden State. Weeks into the fiscal year, California still has no budget and faces a Pacific Ocean-sized $15 billion deficit. On Wednesday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger offered a "compromise" plan that kicks the legs out from his own party with a big new sales tax increase. "It's time to put ideology aside," he insisted. [Arnold Schwarzenegger] Now he faces a revolt from Republicans in the legislature who think this is precisely the time to be ideological. "Any tax increase plan won't pass with Republican votes -- absolutely not," a defiant Mike Villines, minority leader of...

From the producers of Wordplay and the studio that brought you Supersize Me, the must-see documentary I.O.U.S.A. uncovers the source of critical economic concerns that touch the lives of every American. A tapestry of archival footage, hard data and candid interviews woven together, it paints an authentic profile of today’s economic condition. Solutions for how we can impact this nationwide crisis and evolve into a more fiscally sound nation for future generations are offered by the documentary’s powerful conclusion. “May be to the U.S. Economy what An Inconvenient Truth was to the environment.” - Reuters

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger went public Wednesday with yet another state budget proposal, one that he said reflects a true compromise between Republican and Democratic goals for a spending plan. The proposal includes a three-year, one-cent increase in the sales tax, an effort to build a bigger state savings account for rainy days, and more spending cuts than he proposed when he released his last set of ideas in May. With no budget agreement in sight in the Legislature 51 days into the fiscal year, Schwarzenegger said the lack of a budget is "shameful." "Many Medi-Cal hospitals are not getting paid,...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline)-California state workers will receive their full pay at least this month because of when a judge scheduled a hearing Wednesday. The judge's move also affects attorneys in the California Department of Justice, who were set to receive no pay until a state budget is signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. In addition to doctors and engineers, lawyers in Attorney General Jerry Brown's office had been told they would receive no pay, while other state workers would be paid the federal minimum wage of $6.55 until a budget is signed.

A federal judge has ordered a temporary halt in the state's 10 percent cut in Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, improving access to care for 6.5 million low-income patients but throwing a new wrench in already difficult state budget negotiations. The U.S. District Court decision forces the state to reimburse most Medi-Cal providers at rates prior to the 10 percent cut, which lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made effective July 1 as a cost-cutting measure to help resolve a $15.2 billion budget shortfall this year. The move effects reimbursement rates the state pays to doctors, dentists, pharmacists, adult day-care centers and other...

Budget negotiations between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and four Legislative leaders fell apart Tuesday when one of the Republican leaders stormed out of the meeting, angrily charging that the talks "are not helpful." "Frankly, I was very frustrated when leaving that meeting," Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines from Clovis (Fresno County), said in an interview. "I'm tired of walking into (these meetings) and the only thing that's being talked about is more tax increases." Tuesday's meeting between the "Big Five" - the governor, and the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate and Assembly - was the group's first in more...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. A Democrat in the California legislature has been kicked out of her Capitol office for not supporting the party's state budget proposal. Assemblywoman Nicole Parra of Hanford said Monday she wasn't surprised about being punished but was "a little taken back" by Democrats' decision to move her out of the Capitol. When she abstained from Sunday night's budget vote, the bill fell nine votes short of the two-thirds majority needed. Parra was the only Democrat present who didn't vote for it.

The central focus of Sunday's four-hour Assembly debate over the long-stalled state budget was the Democrats' $6.7 billion package of new taxes. Republicans complained loudly that with California's economy mired in recession, raising taxes would be counterproductive, making the state less hospitable to business and propelling investment elsewhere. Democrats countered that there's no evidence that California's above-average tax burden has stymied business investment or profits. Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, was especially adamant on that point, citing statistics about the state's robust – until recently – economy. Leno's floor speech was tinged with irony, however, because he's carrying legislation that...