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Wasteful Spending

USPS Wants More Money Now

USPS Raising Rates Mailings

The black hole of a business, USPS, has requested to raise the rates again. Sure, it’s not much (3 cents) but it seems every few months now they are asking for another nickel or dime. It’s a sound strategy asking for a little at time. Obviously if they just asked for a .50 cents per piece of mail they would be denied, however, small increases get approved. This increase will put us as .49 to mail one piece of mail. I have talked about the United States Postal Service before and how they basically are killing themselves by not changing with the times. The reality is this will most likely get approved. However, they are going to learn quickly that physical mail is a black hole. It may help in the short term but people are just about done with them raising the rates and playing these games. More and more each day are giving up on the mail service and moving entirely digital. Almost every company offers paperless services now (except your sewer bill which is another topic). If they really want to alienate people, they are going down the right path with these constant raises. Time will tell I guess.

I sure find it interesting that they have the money for paying all the executives 200K to 500K per year. I see them advertising at the Tour De France and NASCAR. Their top executives make more than the Vice President of the United States. Last Summer they got busted for spending $400K on sporting tickets, booze, and fancy meals. Where do we draw the line and say make it work or even bring in a new company? I sure there are a lot of companies who would be more than happy to make this work for much less. It’s time for a change that is for sure.

Michelle Obama’s Trip To Ireland

Michelle Obama Vacations Wasting Tax Money

If you are a regular reader of this Website you read what I wrote about Joe Biden’s expensive hotel stay. I do not want to be accused of picking on MEN so I want to follow up with Michelle Obama’s trip to Ireland. For sure she did not have to check her bank balance or look in her pockets for some change or do any price shopping for a place to stay. Nope since it was on the taxpayers dime she went for the best. According to reports she stayed in the Princess Grace Suite which charges $3,300 a night. Her entourage booked 30 rooms.  The cost of the two day trip has been reported to be around $5 Million dollars. Taxpayers pay for first family’s travel. But shouldn’t there be a limit? The Obama’s have thumbed their noses at us lowly working Americans time after time. Even if it is legal to do it, how can the Obama family blow through millions while at the same time preaching about the cuts the sequester is causing. Obviously it does not affect them.

His trip was a real money waster too. He can,t seem to stay home. It cost Ireland a lot for his security. They take Air Force One and Air Force Two. His speeches were terrible but there was a good reason. It was the SUN. They say the sun was in his eyes and he could not see his teleprompters. Guess he has never given a speech in the sun before. When he spoke in Germany it was before 5,000 invited guests (and it has been said that a lot of those did a no show). When Kennedy spoke there it was to a crowd of 450,000. Even Republican Ronald Regan spoke to 45,000.

If anyone is against anything the Obama’s are for they can be audited by the IRS. Obama will act like he is shocked that the IRS would single out Patriots, or Tea Party groups and he will pretend to do something about it but he needs the IRS. They are the source of the money for the government to waste. Once the IRS starts on you even if you did not do a thing wrong, you’re done. They can trump up something in an audit and you can fight them for years and never win. They can take your home, you can lose your job and never really be sure what the heck happened. All you end up with is a huge attorney bill.

This got a little off track from Michelle’s trip but the Presidents lies are slowly catching up. He says this is a transparent government but it’s anything but. With all the surveillance of private citizens he is trying to say he did not have any warning about Benghazi. Help was an hour away. He hasn’t even said where he was that night, but he has lied about everything else what could he say that anyone would believe. Until the IRS is dismantled not much will change. They are not making up the rules, they are coming from the White House. The only thing positive the IRS workers have done this year is “learn to boogie”. They should boogie right off the stage and lose their jobs. If they do something really bad they get put on paid leave. I read that the IRS got a bonus of $70 million. Not sure for what. Was it for throwing the election? But hey Obama is cutting expenses by closing the White House to the public at a savings of $17,000 a week. Maybe it was that savings that made it possible for Michelle to take a hairdresser to put glitter in her bangs.  Need to go throw up yet?

Senator Maria Cantwell

Senator Maria Cantwell

I recently wrote to our Senator Maria Cantwell regarding raising the debt ceiling and the nations over spending habits.  Here is the conversation.

Dear Lilly,

Thank you for contacting me about your views regarding the federal budget and raising the debt ceiling.  I appreciate hearing from you on this issue.

Our country faces serious challenges following the economic collapse brought on by Wall Street in 2008. As your Senator, I have remained focused on turning around our economy by investing in job creation, fighting for Main Street small businesses, and implementing strong financial reform.

I am also deeply concerned about getting our country’s fiscal house in order. It is time for both parties to work together for the good of the country and produce a responsible debt limit plan. I will continue to advocate for a plan that will stave off the economic catastrophe of default while creating jobs, putting Americans back to work, cutting wasteful government spending, and protecting Medicare and Social Security.

Government has a responsibility to spend taxpayers’ dollars wisely, but it also has a responsibility to provide certain services and guarantees to the American people. In this time of economic crisis, I believe it is especially important that Congress prioritize those measures that will foster long-term economic growth. We must reinvest in our education system, in our workers, in our nation’s infrastructure and in the development of clean energy technologies that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil. By making these important investments today and helping revitalize our economy, we can leave our children with prosperity not debt.

As a member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee I will continue to work with President Obama and with my colleagues to draft legislation that strikes the right balance in how we collect and spend federal tax dollars so we can leave more than debt to the next generation.  This is why I’ve worked to cut taxes for Washington families, specifically by extending the sales tax deduction to ensure fairness for residents of our state.   I understand that this issue is especially important to you; be assured that I will keep your views in mind as we craft legislation.

Thank you again for contacting me to share your thoughts on this matter.  Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Maria Cantwell
United States Senator

I responded with the following email to Senator Maria Cantwell….

Dear Senator Cantwell:

Thank you for the response. I realize you have to send a boiler type answer but yours was informative. I don’t agree with a lot of what you say. I am not getting into dollar amounts here,  just using common sense that comes with growing old and being poor and working most of my life.
You do not help taxpayers, or the government by raising the debt ceiling. No one gets out of debt by getting more credit cards and it’s the same thing. The debt has tripled or more under Obama. He doesn’t have a clue about spending. He blows through money like a train wreck. He has never had to work for any money and does not know what a budget or anything else is. Most all of you have to keep promising the people in your State more and more goodies to get re elected. You have so many people voting for you that have never worked, never have any intention of working but know how to milk the system. There is absolutely no reason that generation after generation lives on welfare. It’s not fair to them. They will vote for every bus, or park or anything else that will raise our taxes because they don’t pay rent, they don’t pay for their food, they don’t’ pay for their medical. They are young, able bodied and somehow you have millions of people who think they are entitled to be taken care of. You have to cut that off. You are doing them no favors, but it does get you re elected.
The government is totally bloated. Lets just take the IRS now. Look at Lerner. She was making $200,000 a year as head of the department that supposedly grants special tax exempt status to organizations. Well I think before its over they will show that the election was controlled by the IRS in lots of ways. but back to her. She recently got a bonus of $100,000. Geez that’s 3 times more than I ever earned in a year. But it gets worse. First she tried lying, that didn’t work, so she lawyers up and takes the 5th. Someone wanted her to resign, but since she REFUSED to resign there was no choice(who the heck dreamed up that) but to put her on administrative leave. Now she can draw her pay and not even have to get up and go into the office. Don’t you see where you could save $300,000 right there. In our real world someone would have escorted her to her desk and said pack it up. Should have gone straight to jail, but if not that should have ended the job, pensions and perks. That’s just an example. We have a president that has no idea what the word truth means, from where he was born, whether he is a citizen, he was not told about the crooks in the IRS and acts like he is surprised. Lerner is saying it was not something she thought the president needed to know. Well no one knows where he was the night our 4 men were killed in Bengazi and they made a complete fool out of Susan Rice sending her to all talk shows to lie thru her teeth. They knew right on the start it was a terriorist attack. At the funeral of the dead Seal. Hillary leaned over to the Father of the dead Seal and said we will get the guys who made the video. She is as big a liar as Slick Willy but that was cruel. Obama thinks its terrible to treat the newsmen like criminals. but Holder signed the warrant that got Rosen in trouble and now Holder is going to get to the bottom of why a warrant was signed. One last thing, Obama wants to pretend. gee he didn’t know about any of these things and it was not important that he knew because he is so busy. Well it was important that he knew a millionaire black sports guy came out of the closet and even phoned him personally. Well for a president he really has his priorities screwed up. Cut government workers wages, cut out the pork, stop promising things you know there is no money for. DON’T RAISE THE DEBT LIMIT.
Thank you,
Lilly.

I encourage everyone to call, write, or even post on the Emerald City Journal you’re thoughts and opinions regarding issues. Make your voice heard.

Navy Spending Tax Money At Key Arena

The Old Key Arena Building in Seattle

A friend and I went to a concert a few weeks ago at Key Arena (she was persuasive).  The last time I visited was in High School for a hockey game; it was a good experience.  Going to the Key Arena isn’t something I would normally do these days.  The ticket prices, parking, and traffic make it mostly miserable for me.  The City Of Seattle strategically limits the hours of street parking so you can pay the $25+ parking at the event.  The concert was mostly sold out by the time we decided to go.  The remaining tickets were in the nosebleed section and after the Ticketmaster fees they were $98 dollars each.  With that being said, this plan was starting to fall apart quickly.  I decided to check out Craigslist to see if any opportunities were available.  After a few days, I decided to pull the trigger on some Key Arena luxury suite tickets via Craigslist posting for

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Legislators Charging Us For Cellphones, Dry Cleaning And Art

The Foxes are really guarding the chickens in Olympia. Maybe what I will be writing is not something the “crooks”, can be put in jail for, but they sure should be kicked out of the front door in Olympia. The things we read in the paper are just the crap that we know about. If they could get by with what we did find out, what else are we paying for?

Each lawmaker knows when he runs for office what the salary is. He knows he will be paid a salary between about $42,000 and $50,000. He knows he has to wear clean clothes on the job. He has an office in Olympia to work from and should stay right there for the short while the legislature is in session. They get Keep Reading

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