394 Gt Fiscal Discipline Updates

GT – Fiscal Discipline DDI 2008 GT Logan

Fiscal Discipline Low There’s no fiscal discipline now – West Virginia proves JENNIFER LEVITZ, staff reporter in Boston for The Wall Street Journal, 8/4/08, “When 401(k) Investing Goes Bad - Teachers in West Virginia offer a valuable lesson for what not to do,” Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121744530152197819.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Some retirement experts say another problem that surfaces in 401(k) plans is the "red-truck syndrome": Plan participants use some of their nest egg at retirement to buy something they always dreamed of having. Teresa Ghilarducci, an economist at the New School for Social Research in New York, says many workers take their 401(k) in a lump sum and have difficulty making it last. She says the West Virginia case "shows the nation what is wrong with everyone's 401(k)," including a lack of investment knowledge and fiscal discipline.

There is no fiscal discipline right now, our economy is in trouble – overwhelms the action of the plan Steve Chapman, member of the Tribune's editorial board, 7/10/08, “Obama, McCain and the coming fiscal disaster,” Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped0710chapmanjul10,0,7110404.column Federal budget policy is a dry subject with far too many numbers and charts, which makes it uninviting to most Americans. But the theme of the current budget story is one that could have come from a blockbuster summer movie: We are doomed. There is a fiscal asteroid on course to pulverize us, and no one is coming to the rescue. The problem is simple and depressingly familiar. This year, federal spending will exceed federal revenue by more than $400 billion. Given the weak state of the economy, the deficit will get worse before it gets better. Actually, it may never get better, because the current shortfall coincides with the start of the most dreaded fiscal event of all time: the retirement of the Baby Boomers, who will soon consume eye-popping amounts in Social Security and Medicare.

There just is no fiscal discipline now Wayne Brown, well-known Trinidadian writer and columnist, 7/20/08, “The race for the White House - All about Obama,” Stabroek News, http://www.stabroeknews.com/features/the-race-for-the-white-house-all-about-obama/ After eight years in which the Bush administration — rubber-stamped by a Republican Congress — comprehensively debased the US political system and America’s image in the world, threw fiscal discipline to the wind, gratuitously got that country’s oncevaunted military hopelessly bogged down in Iraq, and presided over runaway oil prices and the current crisis in the US economy, most Americans have had it with the Republican brand, at least for now.

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GT – Fiscal Discipline DDI 2008 GT Logan

Fiscal D is Bad Fiscal discipline causes forest fires Red, Green, and Blue, Jennifer Lance, 7/30/08, The Politics of Fire Suppression: Did Bush Administration Budget Cuts Cause Bigger Wildfires?, http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/07/30/the-politics-of-fire-suppression-did-bush-administration-budget-cutscaused-bigger-wildfires/ In 2007, the United States Forest Service (USFS) spent $1.37 billion fighting wildfires, up from $307 million ten years ago. This year, that number will be much greater due to the 2008 California Firestorm. For example, the Lime Complex in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, which is not contained, has a current cost (7/28/08) of $38,627,355! How will financially strapped California and the USFS pay for these fires and did these fires grow larger because of Bush administration budget cuts? Year after year, Bush has cut funding from the USFS, yet within this budget, more money is allocated for fire management and less for fire prevention. In February, 2008, Bush proposed decreasing fire preparedness monies by 11 percent. Although the budget calls for a $150 million increase for extinguishing blazes, prevention funding is slashed by $77 million, including a $13 million reduction in small fuels removal. Similar cuts were proposed in 2007. Casey Judd, business manager for the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association, a firefighter employee group explains, “The administration still has it backward. Preparedness should be the focus, not suppression.” Norm Dicks, D-Wash., adds, “Common sense would be that if you put more money into fuel reduction, it’s going to have an effect on having less severe fires.” The White House response was that money could be shifted between the agency’s firefighting and fire suppression accounts, as needed. This is exactly what concerns USFS employees with the current California wildfires.

Fiscal D now / bad for crime Delaware Online, 7/30/08, “New fight against crime should be well-targeted before adding money,” http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080730/OPINION11/807300315/1004/OPINION The one thing we know about crime in our modern society is that there is no single solution for beating it. Not even gobs of federal money could work the miracles we need. Of course, more money would help, as would more police officers on the street. But both would have to be precisely targeted, a feat the government so far has not mastered. Sen. Joe Biden re-introduced a package of anti-crime bills this week that would seem to go after every problem at once. The bills are similar to a program he introduced last year. Some of the ideas behind the proposal are very good. Others are not. But the overall effect, presented in grand election-year press conference fashion, makes the approach seem scattershot. Delawareans, along with most Americans, are worried about rising crime rates, especially shootings and other violent acts. Large and small cities across the nation have been hit by a steady stream of senseless shootings that have baffled law enforcement authorities. More police on the streets, working in communities with law-abiding citizens to restore order, would help make neighborhoods safer. But that won't solve all of the problems. Sen. Biden attributes the recent rise in crime to Bush administration budget cuts. If that were the only reason, the solution would be more money. But there is little independent evidence that federal money alone lowered the crime rate in the 1990s.

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GT – Fiscal Discipline DDI 2008 GT Logan

Budget Cuts Now Budget cuts now – soybean alert system proves BRUCE HOTCHKISS, Senior Editor, 7/29/08, “Soybean rust alert system may be victim of budget cuts,” AmericanFarm.com, http://www.americanfarm.com/TopStory7.29.2008c.html Federal belt-tightening threatens to silence the three-year-old nationwide Asian soybean rust alert system. That warning comes from a steering committee composed of representatives of both the USDA and Extension Service, which reports that unless funding sources, other than the USDA Rural Management Agency (RMA), can be tapped, the soybean rust forecasting and alert system will run out of money, and presumably cease to function, as of Jan. 1, 2009. The system is formally known as ipmPIPE, the acronym for integrated pest management Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education. In came into being in 2005 and, according to the steering committee, has been highly successful — even to the point of being expanded to provide real-time information for management of soybean aphids, cucumber downy mildew, pests and diseases of legume crop and pecan nut casebearer. The Web-based tracking and alert system has cost about $3 million to develop and operate, but its proponents argue, its return on investment has been outstanding and they are determined to save it, if possible.

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