Our own Randy Ewart took a spreadsheet that I made available to y’all earlier and crunched the numbers for us a couple of different ways, helping us dig a little more deeply into the "Competitive Grants Program."
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His first spreadsheet sorts the grants by awarded amounts over 100k, then by awarded amounts 100k or less. As Randy says, "This makes it easier to see all the awarded amounts."
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He then sorts them by individual lawmaker, so you can more easily see who got what.
Thanks, Randy! We appreciate your time, and your expertise.
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Nicely done by Randy. My reaction to a list like this is that it is overwhelming. On the one hand, we have lawmakers talking about the state being in a financial crisis and then we see this give-a-way free for all. Then again, spending on highways, universities, and other programs dwarfs what we see on this list. Ultimately, the wage earners in SC are the citizens being abused by the overspending and waste. The income taxes in SC are outrageously structured. And now social security contributions are maxed when your pay hits $97000. Yet another tax that increases silently every year on the workers in America.
> And now social security contributions are
>maxed when your pay hits $97000
Although I favor privatization of social security, the easiest fixes to the current system to make it stable for several more decades would involve shared sacrifice among everyone:
1) Eliminate the cap on max earnings
2) Raise the retirement age by a couple years
3) Reduce benefits for high net worth individuals
Very few politicians have the guts to touch the third rail… until it becomes a crisis.
Regarding the pork list: this is why ideas like limiting budget increases to inflation plus population growth make no sense. First, eliminate all the pork… then budget on real need. This pork list robs
our schools, our needy, our healthcare system – for parades, statues, and other frills.
Thanks, Randy.
Doug, let’s just eliminate the concept of retirement and make the geezers work and pay taxes till they drop dead on the job. The highways would be safer with all the 40 foot long RVs with 80 year old drivers off the interstates. Think of the possibilities.
But, Doug, here’s the way it works. You demand the cap on spending, and lawmakers obligingly enact it.
Then they cut spending on law enforcement and other essentials, and continue with the pork. And this isn’t because they’re evil or venal, although some are. It’s just that lawmakers elected from narrow districts often truly can’t see that the general good of the state is greater than what the folks in their district are asking them for.
If you don’t believe that’s what will happen, just look around you. It’s already happening. It’s already happened.
The only alternative is enlightened despotism, with me as the despot. I promise to get rid of the waste (as I see it) and take care of the essentials (as I see them).
But since there’s slight chance that I would not be the one picked to be the despot, I’ll stick with a republic. And as long as we’re sticking with that system, I won’t place any arbitrary caps that encourage lawmakers, in their shortsightedness, to further neglect fundamental services.
So you’ll accept that the current regime will increase the pork proportionally to the rest of the budget. We know where that path leads as well.
The Seattle times provide a chance to play Washington Despot and decide the fate of “waste” and “essentials”.
If I’m not mistaken, Washington transitioned funding for education from property to sales tax. Read how things are going.
Times provides
The problem with Social Security isn’t that the more than 30 tax hikes have not been sufficient. The problem is that Congress continues to steal any cash that doesn’t need to be spent on immediate benefits payments. Then the program goes broke and needs another tax hike.
Anyone making $97,000 is already paying $15,000 a year in FICA taxes, enough to make him a millionaire in a genuine, honest retirement plan. The cry from ne’er-do-wells to remove the cap on a tax that shouldn’t even exist is just proof that they know this is not a retirement system at all, but just a welfare scam, when the productive private-sector workers fun handouts for the drones.
Privatizing it right now would not be difficult. Letting it continue to rob Americans of their retirement savings and then have it go bankrupt for the next generation will be just more fuel for collapse of our economy and collapse of society as the starving drones try to steal what the politicians told them was their birthright.
Lee,
I agree with you (even though I mentioned removing the cap). I would gladly give up all claims to any money I’ve put into Social Security over the past 25 years if I could have the full 15% of my income under my control for the next 25.
Social Security is not a retirement fund – it’s a welfare system intended to keep the lower class dependent on the government while providing a huge pot of money for the government to waste. If it was truly a retirement fund, we’d all have a pot of money available at our disposal when we retire. Between my employer and myself, I should have an account with about $1 million dollars in it after 25 years. What do I have instead? A “promise” of a monthly check paid for by a shrinking pool of workers.
Why do you think Bush wants to open the borders and make all the illegals, legal?
Because they will all pay Social Security, and statistically die at a younger age so less will have to be paid out to them.
Unfortunately, young people do not vote and old people are scared they’ll lose the easy welfare check that shows up in their account every month.
Without knowing Brad’s postition on the issue but based on his undying support of government oriented solutions to almost everything I’m going to guess that he favors retention of social security pretty much the way it is. If so this would be one area where Brad and I agree.
Social Security has been an enormous benefit for hundreds of millions of Americans over the past half century. As a pragmatist I just don’t understand all the gloom and doom over something that actually works?
Illegal aliens are currently consuming $44 BILLION more in Social Security and other welfare than they are paying in taxes, so bringing in more of the criminal workers is hardly the means of keeping SS afloat.
Sorry businessmen want illegal Third World workers so they can compete with imports from Third World workers, and so they can just make bigger margins on companies for a few years, draw bigger bonuses before they retire and a watch the companies go under.
Most of our so-called “business leaders” are stuck on 19th century business models with a few high tech trappings. Real estate developwhores can only think of selling more houses to more people, not in terms of competing in a stable population for quality home sales. The same is true of most other industries.
Best of all, federal workers and Congresspersons are exempt from SS contributions. Then, after they early retire from the US employment, they work a couple years in a private firm and double dip and collect full SS benefits. A true American ripoff but only Congress can change that. Will they, never….
The first step to reforming retirement and medical insurance is to take away both as benefits provided by employers, starting with elected officials and government employees at all levels.
Only when they have to pay their own way like real taypayers do, will we have equal protection under the law.