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Fool Me Twice…
While they have greatly expanded the number of assets operating inside our perimeter, the Progressives really only have one play in their playbook. Via Instapundit, we see they are running the same con yet again:
How the White House is hiding the true cost of its spending plans
I’ll let you read the meat of it at the link but here are a few of the key points:
The first budget gimmick is to provide a cost estimate for the administration’s infrastructure plan, the American Jobs Plan, for only eight years, instead of the standard budget convention of 10 years. … Over 10 years, the true cost of the plan would be at least $3.5 trillion, nearly double the original estimate.
The second budget gimmick comes in the form of an estimate of the revenue raised over 15 years, not the conventional 10 years.
And, in what should surprise no one:
Every journalist covering this issue has either missed this budget gamesmanship or is in on the ruse and has neglected to point it out.
Of course, none of this is new. If you were paying attention during the Obamacare Con, you saw all of this play out before. The only difference being: back then they were still learning the offense and it looked like that first scrimmage after two-a-days. Now you are watching the finely tuned squad running away with the Super Bowl Big Game…only they are still playing against Mitch and his practice squad defense.
Soon you can expect to see an appearance by that oh-so-willing-to-please place known as the “non-partisan” Congressional Budget Office. Don’t go looking for any collusion here but…they are, no doubt, colluding with the administration right now to put out some confirmatory models/reports proving all these extra trillions of dollars in spending will not ever be a problem.
Fool me twice…well, the coming years in the abyss will be fully deserved.
Published in General
I still think it’s smarter to buy food and etc, rather than hold onto cash or *gag* bitcoin.
Obama’s budget gimmick was counting all the TARP repayments not as Revenue but as Negative Spending. Cute. They’ve got a whole trick-bag of ‘em.
There was a time when journalists delighted in tearing apart financial sleight-of-hand like this. Now they’re just too lazy, too stupid and too indoctrinated.
How much food can you buy? Are you buying soy bean futures?
If you’ve got cash, or *gag* bitcoin, you can buy food. I’m talking about people who seem to think it’s better to have money. But even if there’s never a lot of inflation, let alone hyper-inflation, there could be shortages that mean your money won’t buy anything if there’s nothing to buy. Or at minimum, it will cost a lot more to buy it then, rather than now.
What is the logic in holding onto money unless you’ve got such a small place that you don’t have ROOM for food? And if that’s the situation, my guess is that isn’t your worst problem.
Right now I can buy a 12-pack of Quilted Northern for $7. About a year ago, people were sometimes paying $30 or more for a 4-pack. What is the logic in holding onto $7 “money” which, last year, might buy ONE ROLL rather than a 12-pack? It’s not like TP goes bad on the shelf.
toilet paper tastes like… well you know, even before it’s used.
Buy heavy metals and mixed metals, specifically lead and brass.
Yes that’s why I also have canned food good for 3 to 5 years, and once I figure I have “enough” for a significant period of shortage, I can start using the earliest purchases first, and replacing them with new stock added to the “back,” thereby “rotating” the inventory so I always have stuff good for 3 to 5 years if the stores start to go empty.
It isn’t difficult to get into that mode. I’ve pretty much always been more of a sale-shopper, with my limited income it’s a good way of making sure I have a variety of things available. I know lots of people who usually do their grocery shopping at regular prices, when something is on sale they might buy 2 instead of 1. But I might buy 5 or 10 or 20, figuring on getting enough to last until at least the next sale.
Yes, it “costs more” to start with, but not as much as paying regular price for everything right when I want it. Especially if you include multiple trips to stores each month for “what I need to make dinner tonight” etc. And over the longer term it can save a lot.
Plus there’s the security of having stuff on hand if the current supplies dry up. And if they do, it won’t matter if I have currency, or bitcoin, if there’s nothing to buy with it.
Some, sure, but the expression “eat lead” is not about nutrition.
The biggest trick used by Congress is in budgeting – authorization vs. appropriation.
A Congressman can tell his constituents he’s for something and against something at the same time, and technically be telling the truth. For example, he can vote to authorize the XYZ Act of 2021, then say he supports it when dealing with voters who support the Act. Then he can vote against appropriation of money for the XYZ Act of 2021, then tell other constituents he’s against it. Or vice versa.
You can bet if the Congressman is a Democrat, his hypocracy will not be pointed out by the MSM, and maybe not even the hometown newspapers. Woe be it for a Republican who tries the same trick . . .
I am so righteously angry at everyone who thinks this fraud is our legitimately elected president. Dislike the other guy all you want, but it really says a lot that he was the most honest president we’ve ever had at least since “honest” Abe.
A lot of people wanted to “turn back the clock,” and that’s exactly what they’re getting: good and hard!
Once your hoard is fully stocked, your diet is all preserved food near its expiration date–no fresh food from the store–except that portion of your diet that you regard as unnecessary and plan to give up in case of disaster if and when it comes. You are from that point on sacrificing quality of life in the present to deal with a disaster that may come far in the future or never.
That is a cost of your plan. It should be considered before adopting such a plan.
But there is an alternative: rotate your stock by discarding the about-to-expire, rather than eating the food. But still, it is a cost (a money cost, in this case, rather than a quality of life one) of the alternative lifestyle that should be considered.
No, you misunderstand. I’ve bought extra stuff that I already like and use, on a regular basis. I’m just not buying it as-I-use-it, I’m getting MORE.
And I won’t be starting to use them just before they expire. I’m already using the first-bought stuff now, and when I buy more, I put it at the END of the inventory, that doesn’t expire for 3 to 5 years. Along with fresh things that I also get now to go along with them. (Cheese, bread…) But if those fresh things aren’t available in the future, or only in lesser quantities (and probably much higher cost), I can get by with the canned stuff if necessary.
And I will have a continuing inventory of stuff that’s good for another 3 to 5 years from the present, whenever the present is. Not stuff that’s about to expire.
kedavis,
Thanks. I understand now; the choice of two costs I referred to doesn’t exist in the case of your strategy.
There’s another thing that I haven’t ever read being considered. Aside from the “should I share with a special few neighbors?” question is the “can I actually get away with not sharing?” question. Cooked food, even cooking canned beans and rice — a hungry person can smell it a half mile away or more. When you’ve got nothing to do, and you’re really hungry, walking a half mile through uneven terrain into the wind, a couple of hours becomes a walk in the park.
Fortunately I have enough space now to stock up for more than just myself. Although there’s nothing inherently wrong with eating canned soup etc, cold. It’s already been cooked once.
And it’s also one more advantage to being in a small town, rather than Phoenix.
We do this with canned goods. Besides, you should eat the food before it expires. Even then, some foods keep well past their expiration date – others don’t.
I like to keep soups and Chef Boy-R-Dee goods on hand. The same thing goes with canned meats and vegetables (and vitamins!). We also have several gallons of distilled water in the basement, although we should really buy a small, hand-held purifier so we can get water from our swamp . . .
For the record, my unrequested, volunteer Ricochet editor decided to take the real sting out of my feelings for that tramp that services the Progressive agenda for free known as the CBO.
For fresh alternatives, you can always harvest from nature. For example, https://www.foxnews.com/science/trillions-of-cicadas-about-to-emerge-across-us about 1/3 of the US will soon be inundated with over a trillion 17 year cicadas, which are nearly pure protein. Herein linked for your future reference, a cicada cookbook: http://www.tullabs.com/cicadaworld/cicadarecipes.pdf
How long do they keep? :-)
Yes, I already have quite a bit of soup and Chef Boy-Ar-Dee stuff, plus canned hams, and chicken and dumplings, and roast beef with gravy (I’ve tried it, VERY tasty with instant smashed taters) and others. all of which have expiration dates at least 3 years out. Water storage is a bit trickier, especially since the amounts needed for any significant period of time can be rather large.
Where I live now, the water comes from local wells, which means the dependent issue is power for the pumps. But the city has backup power generators for that, and if there were a looming problem it seems likely there would be time to set up a reserve.
If I had the money to afford it, the ideal would probably be to have some kind of interim storage tank where the water comes into my place at one end, and leaves for the faucets etc from the other end, with maybe a few hundred gallons in between. That keeps the tank water fresh, and if the inflow stops I have a few hundred gallons in reserve.
Some people in rural areas without their own wells, and in parts of Alaska etc, bring their water in by truck already, and use large storage tanks to supply their homes. They have a step up on that method.