MSNBC’s selective memory

Here’s uber-partisan hack Martin Bashir whinging on about cuts to Meals on Wheels.

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Bashir misstates what is being done. The school lunch program will be altered concerning who is eligible. By slightly dropping the income requirements to qualify for the fully funded meals…instead qualifying them for a reduced price meal this how the budget is reduced. He completely ignores that the original agreement was to cut across the board otherwise the Pentagon takes the full hit. Now when it comes time to make that happen people like Bashir do what they do.

Which is say nothing when states like Minnesota make 1 1/2% cuts to MoW. Or when Counties like Hillsborough County in New Hampshire talk about eliminating their support for MoW which is 12% of the county MoW operating budget.

And where was the national outrage over this?

Democrat Michigan county exec cuts meals on wheels budget, pays massive severances.
Senior citizens in Wayne County, Mich., would rather eat cat food than the slop that currently passes for meals-on-wheels dinners provided by the county government.

Or when Cuomo cut $27M to NYC’s senior centers 2/3 of which will now close.

How to make your charitable institution immune from the vagaries of the governmental budget process.

“The meals are paid for almost entirely through private sources. Donations are requested from recipients as they can afford to contribute. Gifts from churches, community groups, businesses, foundations, and concerned individuals make up the difference. Meals on Wheels of Metro Tulsa relies solely upon private contributions without funding from the government or the United Way.”

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How much National Debt do you owe?

Today’s national debt: $15,675,791,363,404.17. Your share as a citizen: $50,001.33. Your share as a taxpayer: $138,310. It doesn’t matter who got us into it…it matters who’s going to get us out.

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Reforming Social Security

About that Social Security Privatization thing. In Townhall Finance, Daniel J. Mitchell writes about the effects of converting from what is an effective PAYGO system in the US to a private one like Australia has. Australia vs. the United States: Two Charts that Tell You Everything You Need to Know about Social Security Reform. First he restates the problems with Social Security in a nutshell:

There are two serious problems with America’s Social Security system. Almost everyone knows about the first problem, which is that the system is bankrupt, with huge unfunded liabilities of about $30 trillion.

The other crisis is that the system gives workers a lousy level of retirement income compared to the amount of taxes they pay during their working years. Younger workers are particularly disadvantaged, as are African-Americans because of lower life expectancy.

He provides some charts that are instructive. He then explains how Australia, seeing the same symptoms in their system as we do, radically changed their retirement system to the “Superannuation Guarantee” system. In this system each worker has a mandatory contribution to their retirement of 9% of their income. The Wiki article on it provides a very good explanation of the nuts and bolts of how it works. One key point is that it integrated the exisiting superannuation funds that unions had won in negotiations and private packages other workers had. New Zealand has a similar, but voluntary plan, called Kiwi Saver.

All the way back in 1986 the Labour Government began to shift the Australian Social Security system to a system of mandatory retirement savings. It formalized this is 1992 and set a ten year window to have everyone at a 9% rate.

Interestingly, the most serious challenge that the Superannuation Guarantee Act faces is whether it is Constitutional. This is a fairly recent development (2010) spurred by the losses the funds endured during the Global Great Recession. The Right argues that people should not be forced to invest their money, the Left argues that there is a lack of proper oversight by responsible people…just like they do here.

Regardless of whether there are structural defects in the system the result of 20 years of this program is that now Australians have saved in cash investments and not government IOU’s the equivalent of one year of the National GDP!

I first read about this program when the Heritage Foundation began a major push during the Newt Congress to reform Social Security. That paper is now available on line. Interestingly they actually underestimated how much savings would grow.

All across the world PAYGO pension plans are changing to fully funded capitalization system, either by economic meltdown such as Chile, or the clear knowledge that an aging population and lack of revenue would cripple a government system such as in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

The Mandatory Provident Fund in Hong Kong was established when the UK ceded Hong Kong back to China. It was a natural extension of the Inland Revenue Department which had run Hong Kong as a for-profit entity for decades.  As a virtual city-state within China it was clear that the societal differences and increased likelihood of a large elderly population than on the Mainland meant Hong Kong could cripple the system.  Thus the Chinese leadership declared that since HK residents made more money and were more capitalistic then the rest of the country (and more westernized in that the traditional extended family system was gone) they should pay their own retirement plan. It’s doing very well. As is Singapore’s similar system, that differs by more government involvement, yet still offers individual choices.

Virtually all of Britain’s former colonies have some sort of “Provident” plan. These are combinations of pensions and insurance (Life or Annuity). Many give a lump-sum payout on death…which would be something our African-Americans could greatly benefit from since they have a lower life expectancy and get screwed by the current Social Security rules…or offer other arrangements similar to our 401K.  Clearly the Brits didn’t want their Wogs dragging down the Exchequer. And now the former colonies are bearing the blessings that capitalization of retirement accounts accrues.

With all these working models to choose from it seems incredible that we can’t find a better way then we currently have. Or we could be like Argentina and when the wheels really go off the rail simply seize the private retirement accounts.

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The Best Music Video Ever

Back when music videos were good…

And this one has Judge Reinhold and Bill “Game Over Man!” Paxton in it.

Awesome.

Marcus

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Memory Lane

Fueled by whiskey and boredom, I toured Netflix tonight, and found a classic that I remember watching when it came out (or at least, when it was at the base theater).

You must all watch this (again, I hope) soon.  That is an order.

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Freitag!

Marcus

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Another Acquisition

Not a firearm this time, but a movie instead.  This one looks to be at least as good as “Tae Guk Gi,” and I can hardly wait to see it.

Marcus

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Remember this ad?

Marcus’s shared video in the previous post reminded me of this gem:

My, how the crickets chirp these days!

-BLT

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More on the National Debt

(H/T Ace)

Marcus

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My New Very-Favorite TV Show

You must check this out, it is laugh-out-loud funny.

I assure you.

Marcus

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My Next Purchase

Yup, I’m fairly certain it’s going to be one of those new Slidefire stocks. Oh, and maybe a new AR-15 to mount it on. It’ll be with a 20” barrel, bipod and C-MAG… in order to make my very own SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon). This, in conjunction with my 1919A4, will allow me to establish interlocking fields of fire making both weapon systems much greater than the sum of their parts. In other words, I will have two scoops of badassery.

Check it.

Marcus

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The Exploding GSA Scandal

In the face of mounting pressure to explain how hundreds of thousands of taxpayer’s dollars were spent on lavish accomodations in Las Vegas, congress ordered GSA western regional commissioner—Jeffrey Neely—to testify.  Unsurprisingly Mr. Neely chose to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights and said nothing.

I guess the guy might have something to hide.

Marcus

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Glorious leader’s giant metal phallus goes flaccid

As I predicted earlier (as anyone could have predicted, though I’ll take credit where I can get it!), the rocket constructed out of poured concrete and bones broke up after launch.

Maybe those dumb-shits need to figure out agriculture first…they’ve done a comparably idiotic job in that area, too.

-BLT

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The pithiest comment about Zimmerman

A poster at Ace of Spades made the following observation.

This poor fucker is the target of a mob led by the fucking president of the United States, he has a fucking hit put on him by friends of the fucking administration, and the fucking Attorney General just appeared at an anti-him rally with fucking Al Sharpton, assuring His People that no matter what happens in Florida court, dude is fucked forever.
To him, this shit isn’t an “issue.” The USofA is after him. Personally.

The New Black Panthers put a hit out on him. The media has deliberately edited the 911 calls to make him look racist and the chief law enforcement officer of the entire United Fucking States is making statements standing next to the man most responsible for raising racial tensions. I’d run too.

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Is the Hawt Asian Chick to be Kicked off Survivor?

Ace asks the question, and also the question…why don’t more people think she’s hot? A perfect question for JBM readers. Here’s a video.

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DANK rocket launches

Dumb Ass North Koreans (DANKs) are about to launch another rocket.  Interestingly enough, their launch success has been pretty horrible.

The fact they take a month to prep a launch to get everything right just so they can screw it up with plenty of advanced warning it pretty telling.

I’ll bet a paycheck this sumbitch doesn’t do as advertised.  There are good reasons on both sides of the border for this.

And pretending to be able to stick a nuke on top of a rocket that takes a month to prep for launch is pretty lame, capabilities-wise.  When is China going to shed this dingle-berry?

-BLT

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SITREP

Well intrepids, I’m still on the road but on the last leg of my journey for the time being. I’ll be back on another airplane off to Hawaii here shortly.

The sacrifices one must make in the name of liberty.

Sigh…

Marcus

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Because

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We have a winner!

I have it from a reliable source that Marcus was the fellow who won the Kansas-bought MegaMillions ticket!  Holy crap!  That’s going to buy you a HELLUVA zombie-bunker…but why do I think the bunker’s bar is STILL going to get stocked with $4 vodka?

-BLT

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Will our Constitution Stand?

Monday Oral Arguments begin at SCOTUS on Obamacare. Charles Krauthammer’s editorial hits numerous issues with ObamaCare. But this is the one I am really concerned about above anything else.

“Ultimately, the question will hinge on whether the Commerce Clause has any limits. If the federal government can compel a private citizen, under threat of a federally imposed penalty, to engage in a private contract with a private entity (to buy health insurance), is there anything the federal government cannot compel the citizen to do?”

The odds that the Justices will look at this apolitically is non-existent. The sheer fact that Justice Kagan has not recused herself is proof of it. In other words: the entire future of American Liberty lies in the hands of Justice Kennedy!

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