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Episode-415- Listener Feedback for 4-13-10 — 9 Comments

  1. To keep up to date with your Facebook page and Twitter account, I love TweetDeck. From the program, it shows all my updates on both accounts and allows me to simultaneously push the same update to all my accounts.
    Jack, if you want help with it just drop me an email and I\’d be happy to help set you up.

  2. Jack –

    Here’s what we are gettign for our $31,406 per household. I’ll take mine in cash!

    How are your taxes being spent?
    By Brian Reidl | The Heritage Foundation
    Taxpayers filing their 1040s are likely wondering just where all their hard-earned tax dollars are going, anyway.

    Washington will spend $31,406 per household in 2010 – the highest level in American history (adjusted for inflation). It will collect $18,276 per household in taxes. The remaining $13,130 represents this year’s staggering budget deficit per household, which, along with all prior government debt, will be dumped in the laps of our children.

    Government spending has increased by $5,000 per household since 2008, and nearly $10,000 per household over the past decade. Yet there is no free lunch: If spending is not reined in, then eventually taxes must also rise by $10,000 per household.

    Washington will spend this $31,406 per household as follows:

    Social Security/Medicare: $9,949. The 15.3 percent payroll tax, split evenly between the employer and employee, covers most of these costs. This system can remain sustainable only if there are enough workers to support all retirees, which is why it risks collapsing under the weight of 77 million retiring baby boomers. Unless these programs are reformed, paying all promised benefits would eventually require doubling all income tax rates.

    Defense: $6,071. The defense budget covers everything from military paychecks to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to the research, development and acquisition of new technologies and equipment. Lawmakers drastically reduced military spending after the collapse of communism in the early 1990s. The 9/11 attacks reversed this trend, and the inflation-adjusted $2,472 per household increase since 2000 has returned military spending closer to its historical levels (but still lower than during previous wars).

    Anti-poverty programs: $5,466. Nearly half of this spending subsidizes state Medicaid programs that provide health services to poor families. Other low-income spending includes: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, food stamps, housing subsidies, child-care subsidies, Supplemental Security Income and low-income tax credits. President George W. Bush increased anti-poverty spending to record levels, and it has grown an additional 32 percent since the end of 2008 under President Barack Obama.

    Unemployment benefits: $1,640. Unemployment costs have surged by 411 percent during the recession.

    Interest on the federal debt: $1,585. The federal government is $13 trillion in debt. It owes $9 trillion to public bond owners, and the rest to other federal agencies (mostly to repay the Social Security trust fund, which lawmakers raided annually before the program went into deficit in 2010). Record-low interest rates have recently held down these costs. However, the national debt is set to double by 2020, which will combine with higher interest rates to raise annual interest costs to nearly $6,000 per household.

    Veterans’ benefits: $1,052. The federal government provides income and health benefits to war veterans. Spending is up 83 percent since 2000.

    Federal employee retirement benefits: $1,018. This spending funds the retirement and disability benefits of federal employees, including the military.

    Education: $914. Education spending is primarily a state and local function; 9 percent of the total comes from Washington. The federal education budget has leaped 125 percent since 2000. Most federal dollars are spent on low-income school districts, special education and college student financial aid.

    Highways/mass transit: $613. Most highway and mass-transit spending is financed by the 18.4 cent per-gallon federal gas tax. Washington subtracts an administrative cost and sends this money back to the states with numerous strings attached.

    Health research/regulation: $550. This spending is up 50 percent since 2001, and much of this growth is concentrated in the National Institute of Health. The category also includes the Food and Drug Administration and dozens of grant programs for health providers.

    Mortgage Credit: $470. While most of the bank bailouts occurred last year, the bailouts of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the rest of the housing market continue.

    Taxpayers – and the next generation that will be paying nearly half of the bill – must decide for themselves if they’re getting their money’s worth.

    • Brian Riedl is the Grover M. Hermann fellow in federal budgetary affairs at The Heritage Foundation.

    http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/041110/opi_604641741.shtml

  3. Another tip for dealing with recoil while at a bench, if you have a synthetic stock, is to add weight to the stock. I have an H&R 30-06 with a synthetic stock. I removed the butt pad and placed a ziploc bag full of BBs in the stock. I plan to remove the bag before I take it hunting. This has reduced recoil greatly on this light rifle.

  4. I was just thinking how different Washington would be today if elections were held on April 15th!!

  5. The Ready Reserve Corps is an agency of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Officer Corps. The Corps is comprised of 6,000 officers (no enlisted personnel) who are mostly health care professionals, engineers and scientists. They are considered one of the uniformed services. They report to the Surgeon General. They work in the Indian Health Service, Coast Guard stations, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, under served remote communities, and in public health agencies. In event of war they can incorporated into the Navy. They wear Navy style uniforms and insignia. They are hardly an army.

  6. RE: the Ready Reserve;

    The text in question amends USC 42 sec 204. Section 204 is in chapter 6a which is the chapter implementing the Public Health Service Act of 1944 and amendments, and thus legitimately within the scope of healthcare legislation. Some folks mistakenly assume that this is some sort of new thing, which it is not. Others in the blogosphere seem to be confusing this service with the IRR, or Individual Ready Reserve which is an established part of the military chain of command.

    Concern about mission drift and the expanding “emergency” powers of the Public Health Service in this brave new world are well founded IMO, but this little bit is neither new nor revolutionary.

    For those who like to look things up for themeselves, the “Healthcare Bill” is HR 3590 and the relevant section is on page 496.

    http://democrats.senate.gov/reform/patient-protection-affordable-care-act-as-passed.pdf

    USC 42 Chapter 6A is at;
    http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/42/usc_sup_01_42_10_6A.html

  7. @Jason and @corpsman

    Thanks for the correction. If you listen to Episode 416 I went on record with the correction you pointed out.

    I still worry about what this could become long term but it certainly isn’t a “new private army”. Everyone gets fooled at times, sorry I missed this one.

  8. Hello gentlemen and ladies, I have heard Jack’s message today and heard what was said about the civilian army. I have read the Canadian news article and I will say that to me they were not calling Obama someone like Hitler. They said a civilian army is something Hitler would teach. In other words Obama is falling “lock-step” with the teachings of a dictator. While he himself is not presently a dictator, he is certainly paving the way for someone to come after him who could do significant damage to our country with a civilian army. As Jack said himself, a civilian army is something a dictator does when he/she fears the country’s military force. As for Obama referring to some sort of doctor/physician corps, some of those who responded here seemed to have blown off the whole thing. Answer then why the man himself said these comments; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2yGzHfy7s

    If you plan to push this stuff off as hogwash and say things like it’s not a new bad thing or it’s only 6,000 doctors, well I won’t be asleep on this one. I realize that many people contact Jack and comment about this subject and Jack wants to respond but not alarm anyone, I can understand that. I for one however will continue to take this matter very seriously and I would advise all reading this post to do likewise.

    Palmbay lou.