Free Republic

<p>The protests have now spread to other cities, with violence reported in parts of Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol.</p> <p>Great Britain and other parts of the world are experiencing unrest at a time of global economic uncertainty and stock market volatility.</p>

Via Breitbart TV. Remember that liberal tea party that Van Jones is building? Here’s one of their first big initiatives: The “Contract for the American Dream,” in which fresh-faced load-bearers for an imploding entitlement regime cheerily read cue cards calling for more weight on their backs, please. If you’re wondering how we can possibly afford “Medicare for all” when we can’t afford Medicare for some, you obviously missed this video from a few weeks ago of Jones reassuring America that we are not in fact broke, no matter how many zeroes there might be up on that national debt scoreboard....

Who has the power to reduce the US to a pile of rubble, crash international markets with a word, and chastise the world’s oldest republic without fear of retribution? S&P’s David Beers, is the world’s puppet master, of course. To listen to the Obama administration, the entire point of Pres. Obama’s insistence on tax increases was to avoid the wrath of Mr. Beers. S&P’s Sodom like rain of fire on the once secure US is just punishment for a failure to compromise (i.e. raise taxes), or so says Obama. Beers is, of course, not a world leader, not an elected...

Social Security is the federal government's largest single program. About 56 million people will receive Social Security benefits this year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates. About 69 percent are retired workers, their spouses, and children. In calendar year 2010, for the first time since the enactment of the Social Security Amendments of 1983, annual outlays for the program exceeded annual revenues excluding interest credited to the trust funds. CBO projects that the gap will continue. CBO projects that the DI trust fund will be exhausted in 2017 and that the OASI trust fund will be exhausted in 2040. Once...

Just another day in Paradise.

This debt debate comes down to negotiables and non-negotiables for each side. Negotiables are things they are willing to put in play to achieve their goals. Non-negotiables are things they need to keep of the table at all costs. Both sides, not surprisingly have non-negotiables that involve keeping their chances alive for next year’s elections. Let’s start with those.For their part, House Republicans refuse to raise taxes. That’s their non-negotiable and has been all along. Many of these folks were elected in a Tea Party wave that was all about limited government. Many of them made an explicit pledge not...

On July 20, 12 Christian leaders met with President Obama at the White House to voice concerns about the prospect of budget cuts to government welfare. The group included Jim Wallis of the liberal social justice organization Sojourners and representatives from the National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Salvation Army, and several humanitarian development agencies. Finally, as critics have rightly noted, some religious leaders speak as if only government entitlements and transfer payments count as legitimate expressions of Christian charity. These leaders therefore ignore the tendency for government welfare programs to foster among those in...

Some people say BIZPAC is too tough on politicians. My reaction is that we’re simply not shy about saying what others are thinking. At any rate, here’s some advice to you if you are an elected official of a certain ilk and you want to stay elected. The political world is changing. A new political dynamic is brewing. You can ride with it or you can get swept away by it. As a politician, you seek political power nowadays in a world where the internet can render you naked in an instant. You can scramble to cover-up your exposure, but...

ST. PAUL, Minn.....An agreement between Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and GOP leaders will deny schools promised aid and convert future tobacco settlement money into cash now...... Disappointment came from some on the left who hoped Dayton's push for top-tier income taxes would prevail, bringing the state permanent new revenue to protect funding for social programs. The Rev. Grant Stevensen heads a coalition of Twin Cities congregations that demonstrated earlier in the week at the Capitol, urging lawmakers to raise taxes. "We don't live in a poor state, and there's no real budget crisis, but there is a moral crisis," Stevensen...

If you’ve ever held a job and paid into the social security fund, you’ve received statements from time to time telling you what benefits to expect once you retire. Most assume the government provides an accurate account. Do any of us actually keep up with what we’ve deposited? Fact is you’d be wise to hang onto the last social security statement the government sent you. The Government Accountability Office provided a report on July 8 about the social security statements the government has used to inform the more than 150 million workers who have paid into the social security system....

Entitlements: In trying to score political points against the GOP by warning that retirement checks were in jeopardy if the debt ceiling isn't raised, President Obama exposed the fraud at the heart of Social Security. The closer the self-imposed Aug. 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling comes, the more oddly politicians in Washington are behaving — and that's saying something. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner this week ridiculously insisted on a plan within 48 hours. Sen. Mitch McConnell proposed a Rube Goldberg idea to let President Obama increase the debt by vetoing a bill denying him a debt increase, or...

This has been one of my favorite subjects for years but today Democrats exposed themselves on it with the threat over the debt limit. Start with Democrat Senate Majority leader Harry Reid. “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Monday disputed warnings that Social Security is headed for bankruptcy, calling those assertions an “outright lie.” And he says the huge federal entitlement program has not added “one penny” to the federal deficit.” Sen. Harry Reid Misleads on Social Security Financing , Tuesday, (March 29, 2011 CNS) OK, so Social Security does not add one penny, not one! If that is...

Our way to ruin is paved with empty promises We are in a real bind. We have massive entitlements growing out of control and there is no end in sight. The term “unsustainable” does not even scratch the surface of the problems that are facing this soon to be “once a great nation”. Like Obama’s former chief of staff, Rahm Israel Emanuel once said, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste”, Obama is taking his advice and is doing just that. He will continue to gut the dollar until everything falls apart and when people who dependent...

AARP, the powerful lobbying group for older Americans, was dropping its long-standing opposition to cutting Social Security benefits, a move that could rock Washington's debate over how to revamp the nation's entitlement programs, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The decision, which AARP has not discussed publicly, came after a wrenching debate inside the organization. In 2005, the last time Social Security was debated, AARP led the effort to kill President George W. Bush's plan for partial privatization. AARP now concludes that change is inevitable, and it wants to be at the table to try to minimize the pain.

Modern Medical Care is a Blessing Not a Right As last year’s health reform bill again permeates our public discourse many pundits have highlighted how socializing medicine will exacerbate our already precarious budget concerns. Much was also written regarding the evasion of public sentiment when Congress employed especially repugnant procedural tactics. While these aspects ridicule the hypocrisy of our elected representatives, they are secondary. Healthcare is not a right. It's a blessing. Medical treatment or more specifically how we finance it, cannot be considered an unalienable right. It’s a form of consumption. Your right to own a car does not...

The United States is stretching itself too thin, and I am not talking about defense. The liberal entitlement mentality is killing America. In an opinion piece Saturday by The Wall Street Journal, it was pointed out that this year’s defense spending, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, takes up about 4.5 percent of our gross domestic product, the lowest in decades. Meanwhile, entitlement spending, as of last year, stood at 9.8 percent of GDP, the highest ever. The above graph from the Journal tells the story wonderfully. And there is no end in sight....

If I were still teaching strategy full-time, I would require my students to watch Too Big to Fail, and I would devote 2 class periods to discussing it.  In the first class, we would talk about what happens when do-gooders in Washington decide that government can do the impossible -- things like trying to make homeownership, an integral part the American dream, a virtual entitlement.  In the second class, we would examine what happens when government severely limits its options by taking on mountains of debt that it can ill afford to pay.  At the end of those classes,...

Social Security and Medicare — the elephants sidelined in the latest budget talk — took center stage Friday as trustees' annual reports showed both programs' finances have deteriorated. Social Security's trust fund — which gives it carte blanche to spend beyond the government's means until its IOUs from the Treasury Department run out — is now seen running empty in 2036, a year earlier.

As liberals grapple with the reality that the nation's welfare state is financially unsustainable, they've renewed the myth that all would be swell if President Bush hadn't squandered the surpluses that were projected a decade ago. This argument received a boost over the weekend with an article by the Washington Post's Lori Montgomery, who wrote: "The nation's unnerving descent into debt began a decade ago with a choice, not a crisis." The reality is a bit more complicated. To start with, it's important to emphasize that the projected surpluses were just that -- projections. As the Congressional Budget Office cautioned...