Slashing Local Food, Rural Development, Child Nutrition, and Conservation

WIki Image

Taylor Reid
BeginningFarmers

House Republicans Propose Slashing Local Food, Rural Development, Child Nutrition, and Conservation Programs

On May 31st 2011 the House Appropriations Committee approved its fiscal year 2012 Agricultural Appropriations bill (to read the full text of the bill CLICK HERE) with major cuts in agricultural program spending – a 13.4% reduction in from fiscal year 2011. What is most worrisome is where the cuts have come. While the proposed bill actually increases Commodity Crop Payments by $150 million, it seems to take specific aim at much smaller programs funding local food, rural development, child nutrution, conservation, sustainable agriculture (SARE) and fair competition rules for meat producers.

An Attack on Local Food Systems

The House Appropriations Committee Report suggests that efforts to promote local and regional food systems are unnecessary and wasteful in a number of ways. In reality, local food systems have the potential to dramatically increase farmers share of the food dollar, and stimulate economic development and job creation by encouraging local reinvestment rather than corporate profit. The House Committee’s explicit attack on local and regional food systems is one of the most striking elements of the bill’s text, and that of the Committee Report.

Public schools' 'pay to play' fees: By the numbers

In the face of budget cuts and rising costs, public schools across the country are making ends meet by nickel-and-diming students

Wiki Image

The Week

In some financially struggling school districts, students have to pay fees to participate in extracurricular activities... or not participate at all.

Public schools are supposed to be free. But faced with budget cuts, rising staff costs, and declining tax revenues, many are instituting "pay to play" fees, charging students extra for everything from electives to after-school sports — and even some required classes, like French and basic sciences. Here, a brief guide, by the numbers, to these "controversial" fees:

$18

Course supplies fee for students taking English 9 at Dakota Ridge High School in Littleton, Colo.

Debt Ceiling Politics: Fearocracy or Democracy?

George Osborne Image

Dylan Ratigan
Huffington Post

Osama Bin Laden's death cast the fear in our politics into stark relief. One of the weirdest cultural reactions after the announcement of his killing was how the Miley Cyrus song "Party in the U.S.A" got a renewed lease on life on Youtube. That song became the unofficial anthem marking the moment. I thought at the time that the partying was mindless cheering, a sports-like spectacle over something somber and important. Yet, while I think it's generally awful to glorify killing, even in righteousness, with some more time to reflect I've changed my mind.

For over a decade, we've been running our politics on fear so often that it's hardly noticeable. Take the debt ceiling kabuki -- catastrophic economic consequences if we don't raise the ceiling, the end of America if we don't cut entitlements. This kind of fear-mongering is exactly how the banks justify any and everything to bail them out. And it's disguising the actual problems we have as a nation, the six industries strangling our freedom: health care, banking, agribusiness, defense, energy, and telecom.

The people who made "Party in the U.S.A" a hit song, twice, are mostly kids who have known nothing but a fear-based dialogue from leaders that ignore their lives and their real problems in favor of slogans about the global war on terror. There are ten-year-olds who have never lived in an America at peace, and 18-year-old soldiers that barely remember when we weren't trying to occupy Afghanistan. This is a generation that grew up on fear, and fear is very powerful.

Read Full Article


Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

The New Enemy of Economic Recovery: Austerity Protesters

George Osborne image

Eric Blair
Activist Post

As the United States surpasses the debt ceiling today, and Obama and Boehner play "let's make a deal" for deep cuts to the budget, citizens must prepare for austerity measures of higher taxes and less benefits.  These cutbacks won't necessarily be as evident as European austerity, because Americans scarcely get anything tangible from their tax dollars.  However, cutbacks will likely bring similar hardship and protest.

The increasingly ferocious protests over public service cuts and asset looting in the Euro-zone hints at what may be in store for America. Over the weekend a Washington Post article described the escalating unrest in Greece over punishing austerity measures.  However, the thrust of the article was to create the new enemy of the economy recovery: austerity "anarchists":

Geithner's Decade of Incremental Austerity

The worst is yet to come 

Tony Cartalucci, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Bangkok, Thailand May 1, 2011 - In a one hour April 26, 2011 talk before the Council on Foreign Relations(CFR), Secretary of the Treasury (and CFR member) Timothy Geithner laid out a frightening picture of America's economic future. Despite a myriad of metrics used to assure the audience that economic disaster had been averted before Geithner took to the podium, Geithner himself would stress the need for Democrats to cut back on programs while Republicans would need to rethink tax cuts as part of the long journey to real recovery.

Geithner specifically said, "this is a war of necessity. There is no alternative. Democrats have to understand that our capacity as a country to finance things Democrats believe in like education, like a minimal guarantee of protection in health care and the safety net, require demonstrating we can live within our means; and Republicans have to understand, of course, that deficits matter, that they are unsustainable and they hurt growth left unaddressed. Tax cuts don't pay for themselves." In other words, more taxes and less services would help repair damage caused by the reckless degenerate gambling dens lining Wall Street who were protected and facilitated by Washington and its band of ineffective, if not entirely nonexistent, regulators.

Geithner would go on to say that the "cuts and reforms" required to repair the economy "have to be phased in over time to avoid damaging the expansion. The biggest mistakes countries make in financial crises, apart from waiting too long to act in the face of the gathering storm, is they put on the brakes too early." Geithner continued, "they shift too prematurely to abrupt contraction-rate strategies that put at risk the incipient expansion. So you have to be -- you have to lock these reforms in, but you have to phase them in to reduce that risk to the economy as a whole."

US budget cuts mean no more ET monitoring

SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute
© SETI Institute

AFP 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A monitoring system for potential extraterrestrial communication has been shelved due to budget cuts, one of its partners said Tuesday.

With funding dried up, the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) established in 1984, had to put the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) on an indefinite pause, the institute said in a letter.

The telescopes, at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory north of San Francisco, California, had been monitoring for potential messages beyond our planet.

"Effective this week, the ATA has been placed in hibernation due to funding shortfalls for operations of the Hat Creek Radio Observatory where the ATA is located," said a letter from Tom Pierson, CEO of SETI Institute.

Funding for HCRO had been cut to one tenth its former level, he said, noting that partners were being sought.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Implosion Imminent: American People Caught Between Credit and Austerity (Charlie McGrath Video)

YouTube -- crabbydogtrix

http://www.wideawakenews.com/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/apr/18/us-economy-credit-rating
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/apr/18/us-economy-credit-rating
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110417/ap_on_re_us/us_no_taxes

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Collapse Statistics Worse Now Than the Great Depression (Video)

Youtube


Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

IMF urges US to address debt now

Debt clock/Wikimedia image

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The International Monetary Fund on Monday urged the US to begin addressing its yawning budget deficit this year rather than putting off the pain and missing G20 fiscal targets.

In its semi-annual measure of global economic health, the IMF said the US will likely grow more slowly than originally forecast in January -- 2.75 percent instead of 3.0 percent.

It said that slack domestic demand, high unemployment and still-depressed housing prices will continue to dog the world's largest economy, and that the huge government deficit will limit its ability to address those problems.

Don't Believe the False Budget Arguments (Video)

Youtube

http://www.wideawakenews.com/
http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/Laurence-Kotlikoff-Fiscal-Meltdown/2011/0...
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2011-03-31-ceo-pay-2010.htm

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Obama, Republicans seek spending cut endgame

© AFP/Getty Images/File Spencer Platt

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Barack Obama and his Republican foes, spurred on by archconservatives irate over gaping deficits, have until Friday to agree on what may be the deepest spending cuts in US history.

Key Democratic and Republican lawmakers, joined by top Obama aides, are inching privately towards a deal to fund the government to October 1 and avert a partial federal shutdown triggered when a short-term funding measure expires at midnight on Friday.

Republicans have publicly disputed a Democratic claim that the two sides have agreed to slash $33 billion (23 billion euros) and are now arguing over where to make the cuts, saying no single component is set in stone until a comprehensive deal is reached.

"THEY" Caused this Collapse (Charlie McGrath Video)

YouTube -- crabbydogtrix


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/11/federal-reserve-expected-to-claim-no-ho...

RELATED ARTICLE:
10 Ways You're Being Fleeced By Banks

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Broken Nation (Charlie McGrath Video)

YouTube -- crabbydogtrix

http://www.cnbc.com/id/41969508

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

It is time to WAKE UP (Charlie McGrath Video)

YouTube -- crabbydogtrix

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Tax/ge...
http://www.truth-out.org/us-uncuts-an...
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/will...
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/publi...
http://dailybail.com/home/chart-shock...

RELATED ARTICLE: 

Government Promises to Cut Social Security in Urgent Compromise

Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Social Security Payback Option Eliminated

Emily Brandon
U.S. News and World Report

Retirees will no longer be able to get an interest-free loan from the Social Security trust fund, the Social Security Administration announced today. Effective on December 8, retirees will not be able to pay back benefits already received in exchange for higher Social Security payments going forward. Here's a look at how the new Social Security rules could impact your checks.

Free Loans Eliminated
Little-known provisions of Social Security law previously allowed individuals to begin payments at age 62, pay back all the benefits received at age 70 without interest, and then reclaim at a higher rate due to delayed claiming. However, this claiming strategy, which is employed primarily by affluent households, costs the federal government and Social Security trust fund money. "The processing of these withdrawal applications is also a poor use of the agency's limited administrative resources in a time of fiscal austerity -- resources that could be better used to serve the millions of Americans who need Social Security's services," says the SSA in a statement.

Read Full Article

RELATED ARTICLE:
Banksters Are Coming For Your Retirement Next


Buy 1 Get 2 Free at Botanic Choice Buy 1 Bottle and Get 2 FREE (select items), plus Free Shipping on $25+ Expires 12/31/2010

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

Live Superfoods It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"!

Print this page

The Austerity Hammer Starts to Fall on United States as Debt Consumes Europe (VIDEO)

It's the Bankers or the People - You have been Warned!

Alex Jones and Aaron Dykes
InfoWars

Problem, Reaction, Solution: Derivatives, Crash, Too Big To Fail, Bailout, Nationalization, Budget Crisis, Privatization, Debt Slavery, Austerity, Evaporating Pensions, Central Banks, Big Government, World Government. It’s been quite a saga, but this economic crisis has been planned sabotage by design. The age of the Offshore Global Cartel is the age of economic warfare with the wealthy Western world. The 3rd World has largely already been brought to its knees. The remaining vestiges of national sovereignty must be eliminated and the middle class consumer society must be swept back to the feudal age by way of a tidal wave looting of living standards, cut wages & pensions, and the bread and circuses of cheap plastic goods and entertainment. The upper middle classes, the array of independent businesses, remaining lone giants and other true competition to the New World Order mafia economy system must be consolidated or dominated.

Alex Jones explains why it is the bankers or us will be free at the end of this crisis. The total cost of the derivatives is over $1.5 Quadrillion, a sum that will completely consume the world in perpetual debt, a sum that can never be repaid. It is an economic shearing, a shearing of the sheep. The economic crisis has always really been a complete transfer of power to the banking class.


Read Full Article

RELATED ARTICLE:
US Debt Woes Expose Hidden Austerity and Public Looting

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

Live Superfoods It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"!

Print this page

Citing deficit, Obama freezing federal worker pay

Julie Pace
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama announced a pay freeze for 2 million federal employees Monday and warned the American public that the move is the first of many difficult decisions that must be made to slash the nation's mounting deficits.

"The hard truth is that getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be shared by the employees of the federal government," Obama said.

The two-year freeze would apply to all civilian federal employees, including those working at the Department of Defense, but would not affect military personnel. The freeze is expected to save more than $5 billion in savings over two years, $28 billion over five years and more than $60 billion over 10 years, White House officials said.

Congress is not covered by Obama's order, but lawmakers voted last April to freeze their pay, with the House and Senate opting to forgo an automatic $1,600 annual cost-of-living increase. House members and senators now are paid $174,000 a year. Their last pay increase was $4,700 a year at beginning of 2009.

The president's pay of $400,000 a year was fixed by Congress in January 2001. It has not changed since then.

While Obama said the federal employee salary freeze was necessary to put the nation on sound fiscal footing, he also said that he didn't reach the decision lightly.

"This is not just a line item on a federal ledger," he said. "These are people's lives."

Read Full Article 

RELATED ARTICLE:
U.S. Debt Woes Expose Hidden Austerity and Looting of Public Assets

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

Live Superfoods It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"!

Print this page

Gameover!! -- Charlie McGrath (VIDEO)

YouTube -- crabbydogtrix


Links:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/wor...
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article...

RELATED ARTICLE:
U.S. Debt Woes Expose Hidden Austerity and Looting of Public Assets

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

Live Superfoods It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"!

Print this page

U.S. Debt Proposal Would Cut Social Security, Medicare

Heidi Przybyla and Brian Faler
Bloomberg

The co-chairmen of President Barack Obama’s debt-reduction commission will propose cuts to Social Security and Medicare, as well as reductions in income tax rates in exchange for curbing tax breaks, according to a Republican aide who attended the meeting.

The chairmen’s plan is already causing some Democrats and Republicans on the 18-member commission to balk. The plan will be announced at 1 p.m. Washington time today, said commission spokesman Fred Baldassaro.

“This is not a package that I could support,” Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, said during a break in a private meeting by the commission. She said any package able to win 14 votes on the panel would have to look “very different” from the options being discussed.

Read entire article

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

Live Superfoods It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"!

Print this page

Student tuition fee protests turn violent as Tory headquarters evacuated

The Telegraph
November 10, 2010

After initially being ejected from the lobby of Millbank by police and security staff, the protestors smashed their way in through windows.

Using sticks and chairs they destroyed CCTV cameras and broke windows from the inside of the office block. Employees had to be evacuated as masked youths rampaged through corridors and onto the roof.

Dozens of police officers stationed outside the entrance were overwhelmed as the crowd of thousands pelted them with rocks and bottles.

Read entire article

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

Live Superfoods It is time to Wake Up! You too, can join the "Global Political Awakening"!

Print this page