On August 31, total U.S. government debt surpassed $16,000,000,000,000—that’s $16 trillion—for the first time, according to the Treasury Department. The exact amount of the debt on August 31 was $16,015,769,788,215.80, a full $25,000,000,000 – that’s $25 billion—more than what it was the day before on August 30. So the debt is now much more…
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On August 23, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) declared that some 40 miles of levees protecting California’s capital of Sacramento and 15 other areas do not meet federal maintenance criteria. Therefore they are not eligible for federal aid if damaged in a storm. Local agencies, however, see contradictions in USACE policy. The…
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“Solyndra’s power solutions offer strong return on investment and make great business sense.” That is a rather strange claim for the website of Solyndra Inc., accessed on August 29, 2012 no less. Some history is in order. Solyndra was the first renewable energy firm to get federal stimulus money and bagged $535 million in…
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We’re going to make a point today, simply by putting three very recent stories side by side by side! First up, Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman’s reflections on spending and growth posted at his New York Times-based blog The Conscience of a Liberal, which we’ve excerpted in whole given their brevity: First-quarter growth results…
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National unemployment is more than 8 percent and 10.7 percent in California. In these conditions many baby boomers, especially those whose unemployment benefits have run out, have opted to take Social Security at age 62. They may find themselves facing federally enforced poverty. The Social Security monthly payout at 62 is substantially less than…
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According to ZeroHedge, who has been tracking the U.S. Treasury’s debt auctions, it’s very likely that another grim milestone for the U.S. national debt has been surpassed, as it now exceeds 16 TRILLION dollars: November 16, 2011 was a historic date: that’s when the US officially surpassed $15 trillion in debt for the first…
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A majority of Americans approves of the Transportation Safety Authority, according to a recent Gallup poll. A full 54 percent of Americans say the TSA is doing an excellent or good job and 30 percent rating the TSA as only “fair.” Only 12 percent of Americans, according to the poll, said the TSA was…
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Asking the question “Is the U.S. a single-payer system?“, Jason Shafrin, the Healthcare Economist, points to a report issued by the California Healthcare Foundation, which provides a wealth of information on the topic of health care spending in the U.S. We found the following facts presented in the report to be especially interesting: The…
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In the 2012 Olympics the U.S. women’s gymnastics team finished first and won a gold medal. The U.S. men’s gymnastics team, on the other hand, failed to earn even a single medal and finished a dismal fifth. That result, and a broader decline in men’s college sports, is the direct legacy of federal gender…
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We missed it when it came out last year, but laughed when we finally caught up the following video put out by Debt Limit USA: Debt Limit – A Guide to American Federal Debt Made Easy The sad part, aside from seeing the little girl become a co-signer to her father’s debt, is that…
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