Rising Entitlement Spending Is Straining the Budget | Economics21

Rising Entitlement Spending Is Straining the Budget | Economics21

"With the federal budget, too, the problem is spending growth – specifically, entitlement spending growth. 
Entitlement programs are those in which ongoing spending is automatically authorized by law, without lawmakers needing to appropriate funds each year...
One need not look for long at the contours of federal budget operations to see this.  
Consider tax collection patterns first.  
Figure 1 shows that nothing historically aberrant is happening on the tax side to bring about our huge deficits. 

As Figure 1 shows, federal tax policy has been largely consistent throughout modern history--collecting between 16 percent and 19 percent of GDP in the vast majority of years.  
Nor, as figure 2 shows, is appropriated/discretionary spending the problem...

If national tax burdens have remained roughly consistent, and discretionary spending has become relatively more affordable, why have deficits climbed into the stratosphere?  

The answer is straightforward and is evident in Figure 3.   

Read on!

AM Fruitcake

History for April 23

History for April 23 - On-This-Day.com:
William Shakespeare 1564 - Poet, playwright ("Julius Caesar," "Romeo and Juliet," "MacBeth"), believed to have been born on April 23 based on his baptism on April 26, 1564, James Buchanan 1791 - 15th U.S. President, nickname: Old Buck, Shirley (Jane) Temple Black 1928 - Child actress ("Little Miss Marker," "Heidi," "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm")


Roy Orbison 1936 - Singer (Traveling Wilburys), Lee Majors (Harvey Lee Yeary II) 1940 - Actor ("The Six Million Dollar Man," "Big Valley," "The Bionic Woman"), Hervé Villechaize 1943 - Actor ("Fantasy Island")


1900 - The word "hillbilly" was first used in print in an article in the "New York Journal." It was spelled "Hill-Billie".


1908 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt signed an act creating the U.S. Army Reserve.


1954 - Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves hit his first major-league home run on this day.


1985 - The Coca-Cola Company announced that it was changing its 99-year-old secret formula. New Coke was not successful, which resulted in the resumption of selling the original version.


1988 - A U.S. federal law took effect that banned smoking on flights that were under two hours.


2004 - U.S. President George W. Bush eased sanctions against Libya in return for Moammar Gadhafi's agreement to give up weapons of mass destruction.


2005 - The first video was uploaded to YouTube.com.

Comey's Memos Reveal How He Repeatedly Lied To Trump

Comey's Memos Reveal How He Repeatedly Lied To Trump:

"News of those memos first broke last May, after Comey gave four of the seven he'd written to a friend, who then shared some of the details with the New York Times — details designed to make it appear that Trump was attempting to obstruct justice in the ongoing Russia investigation. Comey later admitted that he leaked the memos in hopes that it would prompt the appointment of a special counsel. Which, of course, it did."

The way we were-----THE SHIRELLES - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow [ 60's Video In NEW STER...

Boob-tube-----Tommy Smothers dead-on imitation of Johnny Carson - Jan 1991

'White Supremacy Timeline' merely designed to quell speech the Left doesn't like - The College Fix

'White Supremacy Timeline' merely designed to quell speech the Left doesn't like - The College Fix
"The University of California Merced College Republicans (CR) are (again) dealing with the all-too typical method by which campus progressives fight ideas they don’t like — they shut them down.
Earlier this month the CRs were threatened with a cutoff of funding by the UCM Associated Students due to its “controversial” advertisements supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

The CRs’ signs saying “I love undocumented firearms” and “I.C.E. I.C.E. baby” were considered “violent actions” by the Associated Students’ legislative branch.
...Now, the CRs say UCM students and faculty have distributed “White Supremacy Timeline” fliers on campus which “demand the [UCM] administration condemn the CR chapter at a press conference by April 30th or face consequences.” 

It refers to the CRs and Campus Reform as “alt-right” organizations with “white nationalist audiences,” and says I.C.E. “constitutes a terrorist threat.”...

Read on!

Public School Teachers Are Paid Far More Than Commonly Reported - Just Facts

Public School Teachers Are Paid Far More Than Commonly Reported - Just Facts
"During recent teacher walkouts in Oklahoma that captured national attention, many major media outlets reported misleadingly small figures for teacher pay. 
By failing to reveal all aspects of teacher compensation, these outlets hid the true costs to taxpayers—which now amount to an annualized average of about $120,000 for every public school teacher in the United States.

CNN, for example, published an article by Bill Weir claiming that in “most districts” of Oklahoma, “a teacher with a doctorate degree and 30 years’ experience will never make more than $50,000 a year.” 
That claim, which CNN neglected to document, is at odds with comprehensive data from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor...

Read all!

DNC on Verge of a Nervous Breakdown with Russia Lawsuit | Roger L. Simon

DNC on Verge of a Nervous Breakdown with Russia Lawsuit | Roger L. Simon:

"No, I'm not talking about how the DOJ finally, after another seeming eternity, coughed up the Comey memos—although the vacuous and contradictory contents of the oddball former director's jottings might have something to do with it.
I am referring to the astonishing revelation that the Democratic National Committee (aka the DNC) is filing a lawsuit alleging Russia, the Trump campaign, and WikiLeaks conspired to disrupt the 2016 election.
The transparency here is the DNC approaching a nervous breakdown. They're seeing things and are in panic mode. What could be more transparent than that?"

VIDEO: Students shocked that Obama also sent troops to border

VIDEO: Students shocked that Obama also sent troops to border

The students I spoke with at the University of California, Santa Barbara were, predictably, no fans of President Trump's deployment of the National Guard to the border.

They called it a "a huge waste of money" and "a totally uncalled for act of power," but when they learned that Obama had done the same thing, they said the difference came down to "intentions."

"...I headed to the University of California, Santa Barbara to find out if outrage at the decision was based more on policy considerations, or merely the personality of the person enacting that policy.
Students immediately made clear that they would not support any measure that would send troops to protect the border.
One opened by saying “It’s not justified...it’s a totally uncalled for act of power,” while another remarked that “I don’t think it’s good to send militarized troops to people who are coming in unarmed.”
One student said bluntly, “I’m not a huge fan of the military to begin with...I think it would be a huge waste of money.”
What would these same students say when they discovered President Obama did the same thing Trump is doing now?  Would they be equally as outraged?

Watch the full video to find out!

Read it all!

CDC, in Surveys It Never Bothered Making Public, Provides More Evidence that Plenty of Americans Innocently Defend Themselves with Guns - Hit & Run : Reason.com

CDC, in Surveys It Never Bothered Making Public, Provides More Evidence that Plenty of Americans Innocently Defend Themselves with Guns - Hit & Run : Reason.com:
"Many people who support gun control are angry that the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are not legally allowed to use money from Congress to do research whose purpose is "to advocate or promote gun control."
(This is not the same as doing no research into gun violence, though it seems to discourage many potential recipients of CDC money.)
But in the 1990s, the CDC itself did look into one of the more controversial questions in gun social science: How often do innocent Americans use guns in self-defense, and how does that compare to the harms guns can cause in the hands of violent criminals?
...Now Kleck has unearthed some lost CDC survey data on the question. The CDC essentially confirmed Kleck's results.
But Kleck didn't know about that until now, because the CDC never reported what it found..."
Read all!

Lunch video-----WATCH: Bob Hoover's Greatest Stunts

Noon-toon

Nolte: NYT Reporter Amy Chozick Covered Up for Sexist Men in Hillary's Campaign

Nolte: NYT Reporter Amy Chozick Covered Up for Sexist Men in Hillary's Campaign:

"Does anyone believe these same so-called reporters would have kept all of this a secret if a Republican staffer engaged in unwanted touching or got “gynecological”?
Our media are so corrupt, this information (which directly reflected on Hillary’s judgment and leadership) was not only kept a secret until it no longer mattered; Chozick is admitting she kept it a secret without fear of facing criticism from her peers.

Democrats sure got it good."

SURPRISE! STUDENTS WHO MISBEHAVE A LOT GET DISCIPLINED MORE OFTEN THAN OTHER STUDENTS: It’s really…

Instapundit » Blog Archive » SURPRISE! STUDENTS WHO MISBEHAVE A LOT GET DISCIPLINED MORE OFTEN THAN OTHER STUDENTS: It’s really…:
"SURPRISE! 
STUDENTS WHO MISBEHAVE A LOT GET DISCIPLINED MORE OFTEN THAN OTHER STUDENTS: 
It’s really stunning when one hears of school districts getting in trouble because they discipline disabled students at higher rates than non-disabled students. 
The problem is that we DEFINE students who chronically misbehave as “disabled.” ...

---Posted by Gail Heriot
Read all!!

Noon-toon

The Ugly Coded Critique of Chick-Fil-A's Christianity - Bloomberg

 The Ugly Coded Critique of Chick-Fil-A's Christianity  Bloomberg
"The New Yorker has been taking it on the chin lately for its essay about Chick-fil-A’s “infiltration” of New York City.
...“The brand’s arrival here feels like an infiltration, in no small part because of its pervasive Christian traditionalism,” we’re told.
Not just that: “Its headquarters, in Atlanta, are adorned with Bible verses and a statue of Jesus washing a disciple’s feet. 
Its stores close on Sundays.” 
And lest we forget: “The restaurant’s corporate purpose still begins with the words ‘to glorify God.’”
What the author really seems angry about is that the company’s CEO opposes same-sex marriage. But the framing of the piece made Christianity the villain, and the headline -- “Chick-fil-A’s Creepy Infiltration of New York City” -- was sufficiently troubling that Nate Silver quickly tweeted “This is why Trump won.”
Fair point.
Religious bigotry is always dangerous.
But there’s a deeper problem here, a difficulty endemic to today’s secular left: an all-too-frequent weird refusal to acknowledge the demographics of Christianity.
When you mock Christians, you’re not mocking who you think you are..."
Read on!

#1 This day 1961-----The Marcels - Blue Moon

When Kids Know More About Gender Fluidity Than Auschwitz, Your Culture is Toast - TheResurgent.com

When Kids Know More About Gender Fluidity Than Auschwitz, Your Culture is Toast - TheResurgent.com:
"Maybe it's time to start focus on teaching what happened in the past instead of Howard Zinn social activist history?
...this story from the Washington Post:

Two-thirds of American millennials surveyed in a recent poll cannot identify what Auschwitz is, according to a study released on Holocaust Remembrance Day that found that knowledge of the genocide that killed 6 million Jews during World War II is not robust among American adults.

Twenty-two percent of millennials in the poll said they haven’t heard of the Holocaust or are not sure whether they’ve heard of it — twice the percentage of U.S. adults as a whole who said the same.

Asked to identify what Auschwitz is, 41 percent of respondents and 66 percent of millennials could not come up with a correct response identifying it as a concentration camp or extermination camp.

...Not knowing what Auschwitz was? 

How can anyone look at that and say that there need not be an immediate re-emphasis on some of the actual facts of history as opposed to what we’re seeing in academia today: the Howard Zinn “history as a social struggle” approach, intentionally formulating bias to create social activism in students.

Because as others have noted, when a larger percentage of your country’s youth can expound upon the meaning of gender fluidity than they can what happened at Auschwitz, the future is imperiled..."

Read on!

You ought to know!

PUBLIC ENEMY #1: Reports Suggest CNN Helped Orchestrate Setup Of Trump | Daily Wire

PUBLIC ENEMY #1: Reports Suggest CNN Helped Orchestrate Setup Of Trump | Daily Wire:

"Memos written by former FBI director James Comey reveal that CNN may have helped orchestrate a possible setup of then-president-elect Donald Trump.
According to multiple published reports, the memos seem to indicate that a meeting Comey had with Trump was prompted by pressure from CNN and then was used to launch the media frenzy over the anti-Trump dossier, which was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist writes:"

18 examples of the spectacularly wrong predictions made around the first “Earth Day” in 1970 | Watts Up With That?

18 examples of the spectacularly wrong predictions made around the first “Earth Day” in 1970 | Watts Up With That?:

"In the May 2000 issue of Reason Magazine, award-winning science correspondent Ronald Bailey wrote an excellent article titled “Earth Day, Then and Now” to provide some historical perspective on the 30th anniversary of Earth Day. 
In that article, Bailey noted that around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, and in the years following, there was a “torrent of apocalyptic predictions” and many of those predictions were featured in his Reason article. 
Well, it’s now the 48th anniversary of Earth Day, and a good time to ask the question again that Bailey asked 18 years ago: 
How accurate were the predictions made around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970? 
The answer: “The prophets of doom were not simply wrong, but spectacularly wrong,” according to Bailey.

Here are 18 examples of the spectacularly wrong predictions made around 1970 when the “green holy day” (aka Earth Day) started:...

Read all!!!!!

AM Fruitcake

History for April 22

History for April 22 - On-This-Day.com:
Immanuel Kant 1724 - Philosopher, Nikolai Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Lenin) 1870 - Russian premier (1917-1924), J. Robert Oppenheimer 1904 - Physicist, designed and built the first atomic bomb


Eddie Albert (Edward Albert Heimberger) 1908 - Actor ("Green Acres"), Glen Campbell 1936 - Singer, actor, Jack Nicholson (John Joseph) 1937 - Actor ("The Shining", "Batman", "The Witches of Eastwicke", "A Few Good Men")


1509 - Henry VIII ascended to the throne of England upon the death of his father Henry VII.


1861 - Robert E. Lee was named commander of Virginia forces.


1864 - The U.S. Congress passed legislation that allowed the inscription "In God We Trust" to be included on one-cent and two-cent coins.


1889 - At noon, the Oklahoma land rush officially started as thousands of Americans raced for new, unclaimed land.


1915 - At the Second Battle Ypres the Germans became the first country to use poison gas.


1976 - Barbara Walters became first female nightly network news anchor.


1987 - The American Physical Society said that the "Star Wars" missile system was "highly questionable" and would take ten years to research.


2000 - Elian Gonzalez was reunited with his father. He had to be taken from his Miami relatives by U.S. agents in a predawn raid.

Mark Zuckerberg's Ex-Speechwriter: He Declared 'Domination!' and 'Companies Over Countries' During Meetings | Breitbart

Mark Zuckerberg's Ex-Speechwriter: He Declared 'Domination!' and 'Companies Over Countries' During Meetings | Breitbart:

"Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s former speechwriter has claimed he used to declare, “domination!” and “companies over countries” during company meetings.
Kate Losse, who worked as Zuckerberg’s speechwriter and blog writer between 2009 and 2011, claimed in an article for Vox that the Facebook CEO would “raise his fist with a slight smile and say, ‘Domination!’ as a way of closing out our weekly Friday all-hands meeting.”"

The way we were------Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl

Boob-tube-----Groucho Marx chatting up female guests (1950s)

Researchers Find Genetic Cause For Alzheimer's, Possible Method To Reverse It - Slashdot

Researchers Find Genetic Cause For Alzheimer's, Possible Method To Reverse It - Slashdot: "Scientists at an independent biomedical research institution have reported a monumental breakthrough: 
The cause of the primary genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, and a possible cure for the disease.
Researchers at Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco identified the primary genetic risk factor for the disease, a gene called apoE4...
Their findings were published this week in the journal Nature Medicine...
By treating human apoE4 neurons with a structure corrector, it eliminated the signs of Alzheimer's disease, restored normal function to the cells and improved cell survival.
The study's senior investigator says he's already working with a San Francisco pharmaceutical startup to develop the approach and move towards clinical trials, adding that "we are working to accelerate the timeline as much as possible.""