"Trustees for the government's two biggest benefit programs warned that Social Security and Medicare are facing "enormous challenges" with the threat to Medicare's solvency far more severe.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, one of the trustees, warned of a fiscal train wreck unless something is done.
"Without change, rising costs will drive government spending to unprecedented levels, consume nearly all projected federal revenues, and threaten America's future prosperity," Paulson said at a news conference where he and the other trustees released the report."
But we have BILLIONS for OCCUPATIONS and BILLIONS for BANKS and BILLIONS for Israel!!
How's that bowl of shit taste, 'murkn?
"As the sputtering economy sends shocks from Wall Street to Main Street, the reverberations are being felt on Beacon Hill, where key officials acknowledged yesterday that the signs are bad and the future may be even worse.
Income tax revenues are expected to shrink as the recession takes hold, worsening an anticipated $1.3 billion budget deficit. Municipal officials, heavily dependent on state aid, say their budget problems have already risen to crisis proportions.
State health program faces crucial fiscal choices. A12.
State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill said yesterday that, yet again, he must borrow hundreds of millions in short-term notes to pay the state's bills - like a consumer using a credit card to make a mortgage payment.
All of this is set against the fact that the state already has the high est per capita government debt in the country - and now will be forced to borrow even more to keep a deteriorating transit system and its aging college campuses from completely crumbling.
"Every taxpayer and tollpayer in Massachusetts is overburdened at the same time as our infrastructure is about to implode," said Senator Mark C. Montigny, Senate chairman of the Joint Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets and a New Bedford Democrat. "We are headed for a much more dangerous time than people realize. We've got all these nasty variables converging at the same time."
And their solution? More taxes!!!
Moving forward, while few are talking about serious program cuts, a big increase in the cigarette tax, tightening corporate tax loopholes, and digging into the state's rainy day fund are apparently the most viable means of balancing the next budget.
Officials also are looking at gas tax increases, higher and more widespread highway tolls, and the less tangible possibility that an array of economic stimulus plans, including the promise of a $1 billion shot in the arm for the state's biotech industry, will pay off with new jobs and investment.
But we have BILLIONS for OCCUPATIONS and BILLIONS for BANKS and BILLIONS for Israel!!
How's that bowl of shit taste, 'murkn?
"Healthcare cost increases dominate Mass. budget debate"
A short-term funding problem - closing a budget gap of about $100 million by July 1 - may be solved quickly if the state approves an increase in the cigarette tax and devotes the money to healthcare reform, as is widely expected.
A larger issue will also come to a head by July 1: the need to secure a new three-year commitment from the federal government to pay for half the soaring cost of insurance subsidies. Massachusetts is seeking up to $1.5 billion, but the Bush administration has been cutting back federal payments to the states."
How's that bowl of shit taste, 'murkn?
"McCain warns against big-government aid amid housing, credit crisis""McCain vowed he "will not play election-year politics" with the housing crisis, and dismissed talk of any bailouts, except to failing banks that could bring down the financial system.
"I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers."
But we have BILLIONS for OCCUPATIONS and BILLIONS for BANKS and BILLIONS for Israel!!
How's that bowl of shit taste, 'murkn?
"Wall Street may see $460b more in credit losses"
"Wall Street banks, brokerages, and hedge funds may report $460 billion in credit losses from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, or almost four times the amount already disclosed."
Meanwhile, the investment brokers are going to get bonuses -- on top of the billions they doled out at Christmas.
How's that bowl of shit going down, 'murkn?
"JPMorgan offering bonuses to Bear brokers"
"Brokers bringing in more than $500,000 a year will receive about three-quarters of their totals upfront and the rest in stock of the New York-based bank, a JPMorgan spokesman said. For those between $250,000 and $500,000, the offer is 25 percent cash plus 25 percent stock. Brokers with revenue under $250,000 won't be offered a bonus.
The size of the retention packages may prompt some of Bear Stearns's top performers to join rivals such as Morgan Stanley or Merrill Lynch & Co., where they can get signing bonuses twice as high as JPMorgan is offering, according to Mindy Diamond, president of executive-search firm Diamond Consultants LLC in Chester, N.J.
"I think the million-dollar-plus brokers were hoping for something closer to 200 percent," Diamond said. "Many had a lot of their wealth wrapped up in Bear Stearns stock, and taking another offer is their best wealth-replacement strategy."
How you gonna replace your wealth, shit-eater?
Do you still have a house?
Here's some more shit for your head:
"Fed auctions $50b to help banks fight credit woes"
"The central bank yesterday disclosed the results of its most recent auction - the eighth since the program started in December - where commercial banks bid to get a slice of $50 billion in short-term loans."
Yeah, except they aren't lending the money; they are using it to absorb their losses.
"Fannie Mae tightens loan restrictions"
".... making it harder for consumers to refinance lower-cost loans. Fannie Mae will no longer allow homeowners to refinance loans it owns."
See?
"FDIC to add staff to bank-failure division"
Do they know something they aren't telling us, readers?
As for the rest of the Globe, I didn't buy it and I don't want to spend the day refuting lies and debunking Zionist propaganda.
What I gathered was that something is going to happen in Lebanon soon (based upon the three articles on their website):
"Lebanon to boycott Arab summit"
"Journalists in Beirut sign of trouble ahead"
"Syria tightens controls on Internet use, jails bloggers"
Hell, we are already killing people in the region as it is!
"US-contracted ship blamed in Suez death"
How about those beautiful children left behind, readers?
"Dozens of angry mourners buried an Egyptian man yesterday who they said was killed by shots fired from a vessel contracted to the US Navy that was passing through the Suez Canal....
Family and friends buried the reported victim - Mohammed Fouad, a 27-year-old father of two - in Suez, the city at the Red Sea entrance to the canal.
"I saw the body. The bullet entered his heart and went out the other side," Abbas al-Amrikani, head of the local seaman's union, told The Associated Press.
After the burial, dozens of mourners converged on the two-story house shared by Fouad's family and those of his brothers and sisters.
They railed against America as well as the Egyptian government, which they said does not stand up for them.
"There were no warning shots from the ship. They just turned a spotlight on it and started firing immediately," said Abdullah Fouad, the dead man's brother, who was not on the motorboat but said he spoke to the three men who were.
Mohammed Fouad's wife, Saadah Abdel-Al, was in shock and recalled that her husband had been a hard worker. "He was not a troublemaker and took care of his family well," she said."Did you know a nuclear sub just passed through the Suez on its way to the Persian Gulf, readers?
Something big going to happen soon!
Then there is this commentary on China's censorship of the media:
"Sarkozy turns up pressure on China"
"Beijing has been able to shape its message inside its borders. China's complete control over its media meant that there was virtually no news yesterday of the protests that disrupted the flame-lighting ceremony. It also was extremely difficult to verify information about the protests and crackdown in and around Tibet."
No offense, readers, but how come the phrase Israel-Palestine keeps running through my head after reading that?
And when I reread the statement, I can't get the New York Times and antiwar protesters out of my head.
Why is that, readers?
And about those protests:
Why now?
