WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) – A Republican budget plan due to be unveiled on Tuesday would cut $5.8 trillion from U.S. spending over the next 10 years, a congressional aide familiar with the proposal said on Monday.

The plan, which would take effect when the next fiscal year starts on Oct. 1, is expected to propose sweeping changes to the Medicare and Medicaid health programs, as well as hard caps on government spending and tax cuts.

Face Forward Comments:
More Please. Even with this huge prposed cut we will add debt. We must make the hard choices now and stop electing people that cannot make them.

 While the economy keeps stumbling along, voters continue to express little confidence in government as the solution.

Just 27% of Likely U.S. Voters now think the government bailouts of banks, auto companies and insurance companies were good for the United States. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% regard the bailouts as bad for the country, identical to findings last month. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure.

The latest numbers are consistent with findings since the first bailout was under discussion in September 2008. Since then, voters have consistently opposed the bailouts for both the financial sector and the auto industry. 

Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters, in fact, still worry that the federal government will do too much in reacting to the nation’s current economic problems. Thirty-nine percent (39%) fear that the government will not do enough. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure. These findings are in line with voter sentiments since November 2008 just after President Obama’s election and the Wall Street meltdown.  

Two-out-of-three Democrats (66%) fear the government will not do enough in reacting to the country’s current economic troubles. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Republicans and 52% of voters not affiliated with either major party have the opposite concern, that the government will try to do too much.

 For the rest of the please follow this link:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/federal_bailout/march_2011/only_27_have_positive_view_of_government_bailouts

In the middle of his tirade against House Republicans’ “mean-spirited” budget bill on the Senate floor Tuesday, the Senate Majority Leader lamented that the GOP’s proposed budget cuts would eliminate the annual “cowboy poetry festival” in his home state of Nevada. (See also: Reid’s prostitution lecture bombs.)

Reid clearly has a soft spot for the Baxter Blacks of the poetry world and thinks Republicans don’t.

“The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1 … eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts,” said Reid. “These programs create jobs. The National Endowment of the Humanities is the reason we have in northern Nevada every January a cowboy poetry festival. Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.”

Reid was attempting, of course, to criticize the spending proposal crafted by House Republicans that would cut $61 billion from the budget before he began praising the annual festival in his home state. The Senate majority leader also insisted Tuesday that he would do everything he could to schedule an up-or-down vote on H.R. 1 in order to force his GOP colleagues to take a position on the budget bill that Democrats argue includes “draconian” cuts.

For the record, the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is in Elko, Nev., next January. The 28th annual festival, a “week-long celebration of life in the rural West, featuring the contemporary and traditional arts of western ranching culture,” is expected to draw thousands of people, according to the festival’s website.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0311/Reid_Save_federal_funding_for_the_cowboy_poets.html

Face Forward Comments:

I have nothing against Cowboy Poetry in fact I enjoy the images of the west and the simple life that their words evoke.  However, I don’t know if I would ever pay to go see a cowboy poetry competition (or any other poetry competition).  But guess what readers?  I have been paying for it all along.

That is the problem with Federal funding for the Arts.  We, the individual tax payer, end up paying for “Art” that we don’t like and in some instances, find offensive.  If an “Artist” wants to put picture of Mohammed, Jesus and The Buddha in a toilet bowl and call it art, that is his/her business.  When he/she wants me to pay for it, I have a problem.

The word “crisis” in this country tends to be overworked these days, yet it’s hard to avoid using it when looking at the fiscal condition of state and local government. Unfunded pension and other liabilities for states and localities now exceed $3 trillion. More than 40 states are facing a combined budget shortfall of $125 billion for fiscal year 2012. Texas faces a projected $27 billion deficit over its coming two-year budget cycle. Labor costs are heavily driving this situation. According to preliminary Bureau of Labor Statistics data, state and local government employees in 2010 on average received a total compensation of $39.60 an hour, compared to the private-sector full-time employee equivalent average of $27.42 an hour. Wages in the public sector were 35 percent higher and benefits were 69 percent higher. Public employees, moreover, enjoy greater security. From late 2007, when the latest recession began, through mid-2010, the private sector shed a net roughly 7 million jobs, while state and local governments added 110,000 jobs. Wisconsin mirrors the larger picture. The state faces a projected $3.6 billion budget gap over the next biennial cycle. And at present, it faces a $58 million shortfall in its Medicaid program even taking into account a $194 million federal contribution.

 Union leaders might not have a persuasive case, but they do have a persuasive ally in President Barack Obama. In a Wednesday sit-down White House interview with Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ-TV, the president, parsing his words somewhat, stated: “Some of what I’ve heard coming out of Wisconsin, where they’re making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally, seems like more of an assault on unions. I think everybody’s got to make some adjustments, but I think it’s also important to recognize that public employees make important contributions to our states and our citizens.” The White House is providing more than talk. The president’s political operation, Organizing for America, starting Monday made phone calls, distributed Twitter and Facebook messages, and sent e-mails via group lists, in an effort to build mass support for the unions. This campaign came on the heels of a speech by Democratic National Committee Chairman Timothy Kaine exhorting Wisconsin union leaders.

If you wait long enough, the truth about unions always shows up

bargaining. The year 2009 represented a milestone. For the first time, union members in the public sector outnumbered those in the private sector, 7.9 million to 7.4 million. These figures represented 37.4 percent and 7.2 percent of their respective labor forces, falling somewhat in 2010 to 36.2 percent and 6.9 percent. Government employees, regardless of union density, have a natural incentive to behave politically, for it is through politics that they have obtained and expanded their sinecures. Enlarged government and enlarged union bargaining power go hand in hand. And governors and legislators typically have gone along with union demands, lest they be blamed for service shutdowns.

For this entire article please go here:

http://www.nlpc.org/stories/2011/02/20/union-bullies-shut-down-wisconsin-legislature-effort-block-fiscal-reform

Face Forward Comments:

Unions were created to protect people against big business. Does America really think that the State employees in WI need protection from the state? And to compare the teacher strike to the Egyptian pro democracy protest is just stupid. “Give me a $3 dollar perscription card or give me death” is not even close to reality.  Make sure to read the entire artice so you can see Michael Moore’s comments…… What a dufus!