Monday, November 27, 2017

The Tax Cuts the Republicans are seeking will lead to $1.5 Trillion added to the USA Deficit.

That indebtedness to the USA Treasury will trigger a "PAYGO" law. The PAYGO law automatically removes large amounts of money from public program funding,  including Medicare.

"W" tried the same thing after he was re-elected in 2004 when he asked for $2 Trillion from SSI. 

PAYGO, (click here) which stands for “pay-as-you-go,” is a budget rule requiring that (using current law as the baseline) tax cuts as well as increases in entitlement and other mandatory spending must be covered by tax increases or cuts in mandatory spending. It does not apply to discretionary spending (spending that is controlled through the appropriations process)....

The talking points are nonsensical. The entire package cuts all sorts of taxes and is stated to give monies to the middle class and families. What the talking points of the plan doesn't say is the costs to the country when all is said and done. The Republican Tax Plan is a "Give Away Program" that is a 'feel good feeling' until the reality of the National Debt achieves 100 percent of GDP.

Basically, it is a political trick. 

If this was a real tax plan there would be public hearings over the span of time of years to compile the ideas and directions Americans would like their tax structure to take. This is horse hockey full of giveaways that our children and grandchildren will be paying for for decades.

The White House (click here) released principles and a framework for tax reform today. We applaud the President's focus on tax reform, but the plan includes far more detail on how the Administration would cut taxes than on how they would pay for those cuts. Based on what we know so far, the plan could cost $3 to $7 trillion over a decade– our base-case estimate is $5.5 trillion in revenue loss over a decade. Without adequate offsets, tax reform could drive up the federal debt, harming economic growth instead of boosting it.

The framework proposes a number of specific changes including: consolidating and reducing individual income tax rates to 10, 25, and 35 percent; doubling the standard deduction; cutting the business tax rate to 15 percent on both corporations and pass-through businesses; repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and estate tax; repealing the 3.8 percent investment surtax from the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"); moving to a territorial tax system; and imposing a one-time tax on money held overseas.

The plan also includes some vaguer proposals, including "providing tax relief for families with child and dependent care expenses" and eliminating "targeted tax breaks that mainly benefit the wealthiest taxpayers." Although the framework itself is vague on the latter, at their press conference Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Director Gary Cohn seemed to imply it meant repealing all individual deductions unrelated to savings, charitable giving, or mortgage interest (revenue would come mostly from repealing the state and local tax deduction)....

What is the hurry?

Even with the detailed portions of the plan, there are not enough parameters specified to provide a certain revenue estimate of the tax plan.

The Pedophile President tries to break the law again. Lock him up!

November 24, 2017

...Before taking on the role of deputy director of the CFPB, Leandra English (click here) had been serving as the agency’s chief of staff.  Ms. English has served in number of senior leadership roles at the CFPB, including deputy chief operating officer, acting chief of staff, and deputy chief of staff. In addition to her work at the CFPB, Ms. English served as the principal deputy chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management, chief of staff and senior advisor to the deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, and as a member of the CFPB implementation team at the Department of the Treasury. Ms. English received her B.A. from New York University and her M.S. from the London School of Economics.

The Dodd-Frank LAW is clear; in the case of the Consumer Protection Bureau, the Deputy Director is to follow in leadership to the leaving of the Director.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is correct again! She states the Consumer Protection Bureau was drafted as part of the Dodd-Frank LAW to protect the public from ruthless practices of Wall Street. Putting a vicious right wing administrator with no experience in such leadership would put the mission of the bureau into direct conflict with it's purpose.

November 26, 2017

...Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, (click here) the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said putting Mulvaney in charge was part of an effort to destroy the bureau.

"Wall Street hates it like the devil hates holy water," Durbin said. "And they're trying to put an end to it with ... Mulvaney stepping into Cordray's spot. But the statute is specific, it's clear, and it says that the deputy shall take over."...

Under Republican administrations, Wall Street has gotten very used to being treated as Astor's Pet Bulldog. Well, the law is the law and the USA is a country of laws; looking the other way is corruption plain and simple. The "W" Administration did a considerable amount of looking the other way and the global economic collapse was the result in 2008. The "W" administration was little more than corrupt in every aspect of it's decisions and the Pedophile President Trump is all that much more corrupt with the idea he paid his way to entitlement.

The Consumer Protection Bureau is LAW. Within the law is protections from corruption by Banana Republic Administrations such as that which exists in the Executive Branch today. This bureau is an Executive Branch agency designed to protect the public no different than the FBI or CIA. It seeks out corruption and law breaking, exploitative actions by powerful people and companies and ACTS AGAINST THEM to return economic stability and fairness to the American people. 

The law regarding the Consumer Protection Bureau is plain. It has a hierarchy of qualified people to protect Americans. Enough of politicizing every possible shadow of the previous administration. It is childish and idiotic. 

"Good Night, Moon"

The waxing gibbous

7.7 days old moon

53.7 percent lit

Seriously? Space travel? Earth is already friendly. The brain shifted into a place that usually causes concussions when injured. It seems to me there are issues not yet realized in a way that provides a path forward.

I hope space agencies simply dismisses these findings. This is not the sacrifice that has to be paid for space travel. This is a result of space travel over extended periods of time. If space travel is to result in pioneers on friendly planets their brains have to optimally function to ensure good outcomes.

November 1, 2017
By Rachel Rettner
Spending prolonged time in space (click here) can lead to striking changes in an astronaut's brain structure, a new study finds. These changes may help explain some of the unusual symptoms that astronauts can experience when returning to Earth.
In the study, researchers scanned the brains of 34 astronauts before and after they spent time in space. Eighteen of the astronauts participated in long-duration missions (close to six months, on average) aboard the International Space Station, and 16 astronauts participated in short-duration missions (about two weeks, on average) in space shuttle flights.
The brain scans revealed that most astronauts who participated in long-duration missions had several key changes to their brain's structure after returning from space: Their brains shifted upward in their skulls, and there was a narrowing of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) spaces at the top of the brain. (CSF is a clear liquid that flows between the brain and its outer covering, and between the spinal cord and its outer covering.) However, none of the astronauts on short-duration missions exhibited these brain changes....