All posts by Ol' Fart
“Parent Plus” Plan Courtesy Of The TURDs At The U.S. Department of Education and Elected Officials
Sounds like Bernie got elected behind the scenes. This is absolute insanity! Unlimited school loans to ALL! Your damn government TURDs at work!
From email dated 5/5/2017 from Wealthy Retirement written by Steve McDonald, Bond Strategist, The Oxford CLub:
The slap this week goes out to the folks who are running a federal student loan program called “Parent Plus” at the Department of Education.
This, the most recent money disaster from Washington, D.C., allows unlimited borrowing for college so students can go to the college of their choice. Unlimited!
Really?!
Unlimited anything is crazy enough, but it gets worse…
Borrowers aren’t asked about their income, how much debt they carry or their ability to repay these new loans. Their credit ratings aren’t even checked before being handed thousands of dollars – in some cases, hundreds of thousands.
Sound familiar? It should. We saw the exact same thing with the subprime mortgage crisis 10 years ago.
Forty percent of these “unlimited” loans are going to people with subprime credit ratings. And 11% are already almost one year in delinquency. So far, 8 million people are 360 days delinquent on $137 billion.
This program is so completely out of control, a spokesman from Harvard Law School described it as willfully ignoring the ability of borrowers to repay the loans.
It’s being run as a giveaway, not a loan program.
And the real killer is that the people who signed for the loans – parents and grandparents – are having their Social Security payments reduced to make good on these debts.
In some cases, the withholdings to repay the loans are driving people below the poverty level.
Loans have been made to people who are living solely on small disability pensions or Social Security – people who couldn’t cover the smallest monthly loan payment.
And none of these loans can be erased by bankruptcy. If the current regulations stand, they’re stuck until the signer passes.
Don’t get me wrong, I know how important school loans are. I couldn’t have attended college without them. And my four sisters borrowed money for school as well. But we were limited to $1,500 per year, and we all had to work to make up the difference.
Oh, and none of us attended the college of our choice. We went where we could afford to go.
Loaning unlimited amounts of money to people who have no ability to repay is beyond even D.C.’s record of moronic financial mismanagement. Driving some below the poverty level to force repayment is draconian.
And the debt and delinquency numbers from the Parent Plus program do not include student loans made directly to 18-year-olds who obviously don’t have any credit history.
This is a bigger mess than the subprime mortgage crisis. Another one compliments of our D.C. financial geniuses.
Good investing,
Steve
Obamacare Taxes Eliminated If HR 1628 Signed As Currently Written
We are a long way from getting the damnable Obamacare tax relief but HR 1628 is a good start. On to the Senate then differences resolved and finally Trump’s signature. It’s far from perfect but it is a start!
From atr.org dated 5/4/2017 by John Kartch entitled, “List of Obamacare Taxes Repealed“:
The American Health Care Act (HR 1628) passed by the House today reduces taxes on the American people by over $1 trillion. The bill abolishes the following taxes imposed by Obama and the Democrat party in 2010 as part of Obamacare:
-Abolishes the Obamacare Individual Mandate Tax which hits 8 million Americans each year.
-Abolishes the Obamacare Employer Mandate Tax. Together with repeal of the Individual Mandate Tax repeal this is a $270 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes Obamacare’s Medicine Cabinet Tax which hits 20 million Americans with Health Savings Accounts and 30 million Americans with Flexible Spending Accounts. This is a $6 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes Obamacare’s Flexible Spending Account tax on 30 million Americans. This is a $20 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes Obamacare’s Chronic Care Tax on 10 million Americans with high out of pocket medical expenses. This is a $126 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes Obamacare’s HSA withdrawal tax. This is a $100 million tax cut.
-Abolishes Obamacare’s 10% excise tax on small businesses with indoor tanning services. This is a $600 million tax cut.
-Abolishes the Obamacare health insurance tax. This is a $145 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes the Obamacare 3.8% surtax on investment income. This is a $172 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes the Obamacare medical device tax. This is a $20 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes the Obamacare tax on prescription medicine. This is a $28 billion tax cut.
-Abolishes the Obamacare tax on retiree prescription drug coverage. This is a $2 billion tax cut.
As a presidential candidate in 2008, Barack Obama had promised repeatedly that he would not raise any tax on any American earning less than $250,000 per year. He broke the promise when he signed Obamacare. With the passage of the House GOP bill, tens of millions of middle income Americans will get tax relief from Obamacare’s long list of tax hikes.
Rob Quist is Not a Musician, Quist Is a Joke
Rob Quist is the Democrat nominee running for Montana’s U.S. House seat. The clown not only under-reported by $57,000 his 2016 income, but has defaulted on a $10,000 bank loan, refused to pay thousands to a contractor he hired, and has had three state tax liens from 2007, 2011, and 2012 which were just settled last year (I wonder who settled them?) Montana, does Rob Quist really represent you and your values? Rob Quist, TURD.
The joke’s on you, Montana.
From missoulian.com dated 5/2/2017 entitled “Montana Dem in US House bid underreported income by $57K“:
The Democratic candidate for Montana’s sole U.S. House seat, a cowboy poet and musician running for public office for the first time, underreported $57,000 in income when he filed federally required financial disclosure statements two months ago.
Rob Quist has garnered national attention in his bid to become the first Democrat to hold the congressional post in 20 years, but he has come under scrutiny for a history of financial difficulties.
Quist’s campaign filed a new disclosure statement with the U.S. House last week after The Associated Press sought an explanation for discrepancies in his initial disclosure document and on his 2016 income tax returns. Federal ethics law requires congressional candidates to file a one-time accounting of their personal finances.
Montana voters go to the polls May 25 to fill the seat vacated by Ryan Zinke, who resigned to join President Donald Trump’s Cabinet as Interior secretary. Quist and two others who have never held public office are vying for the post — Libertarian Mark Wicks and Republican Greg Gianforte, a wealthy technology entrepreneur who ran unsuccessfully for governor last year.
Quist campaign spokeswoman Tina Olechowski said the updated disclosure was routine, asserting that Quist and his wife did not have a full accounting of their income when he completed his initial report. His original statement was stamped received on March 8 and processed by the House clerk a week later.
“Rob and Bonni amended their personal financial disclosure after they filed their 2016 tax returns so it has the most updated information,” Olechowski said.
She said he had planned to revise his disclosure forms even before the AP began making inquiries.
His updated disclosures show Quist and his wife made about $136,000 in 2016. The original report identified about $79,000 in income, while a copy of Quist’s 2016 tax return released to the AP by his campaign listed a total income of $64,805.
The number of concerts Quist reported went from 11 in the first report to 34, including a spot at Red Ants Pants festival.
Bonni Quist’s income for the current year increased $7,791.
The smaller figure reported to the IRS includes adjustments for business expenses, while his disclosure statement is supposed to list all income sources.
Quist’s financial woes have led to increased scrutiny after revelations that he defaulted on a $10,000 bank loan, did not pay thousands of dollars to a contractor he hired and faced three tax liens from the state over $15,000 in unpaid back taxes.
The liens covered 2007, 2011 and 2012 and were settled last May with the Department of Revenue. Quist has not shared tax returns for those years.
“Once again, Rob Quist was caught not telling the truth, and it’s long past time he release his tax returns for the years in question and finally come clean with Montanans about his trail of tax liens, unpaid debts and underreporting income,” said Gianforte spokesman Shane Scanlon. “Quist has shown a disturbing pattern of dishonesty, and that record speaks for itself.”
Quist provided AP his tax returns for the past two years, offering a limited glimpse of his finances. In 2015, he and his wife reported $17,504 in income. In 2016, the couple owed $11,484 in federal taxes and $2,030 in state taxes.
During his run for governor, Gianforte released tax returns from 2005 through 2014, showing cumulative income of $220.5 million and total payments of nearly $35 million for state and federal taxes.
He also had a tax lien from 1993 when he lived in New Jersey. The $3,600 lien was settled three months later.
In 2015, Gianforte and his wife, Susan, had an income of $6.5 million, according to a copy of that year’s tax return provided to the AP.
His campaign said his 2016 return was not available because he filed an extension with the IRS. Financial disclosures filed with the U.S. House show his earned income was at least $164,000, with assets ranging between $96 million and $328 million.
Comey: Classified Hillary Clinton Emails Were In Fact Forwarded To Anthony Weiner
It really would take a TURD to vote for the TURD…thus in fact you really may be dumb if you voted for Shillary. God knows Trump is no paragon of intellectualism and honesty but Shillary? Really??! Anthony Weiner the sextextexpert. These are a few of the G rated images (try to find the other images. For the most part they have really been wiped clean off the Internet yet were prevalent a year or so ago).
From washingtonpost.com dated 5/3/2017 by Devlin Barrett and Karoun Demirjian entitled, “Comey says classified Clinton emails were forwarded to Anthony Weiner“.
The two were investigated for possible mishandling of classified material, but the FBI ultimately dropped the matter without seeking charges because they could not show either of them intended to violate the law, Comey said.
“Really the central problem we had with the whole email investigation was proving people… had some sense they were doing something unlawful. That was our burden and we were unable to meet it,’’ he said.
The director defended his decision to notify Congress that he had reopened the Clinton email probe just days before the election, saying he was forced to choose between saying something or concealing what he knew — or, as he put it, “between really bad and catastrophic.’’
He added: “It makes me mildly nauseous to think we might have had some impact on the election.”
Comey said he has been interviewed by the Justice Department’s inspector general as part of an internal investigation into how the FBI handled the Clinton case.
“I want that inspection, I want my story told,’’ he said. “If I did something wrong, I want to hear that.’’
But he added that he still thinks he behaved appropriately and had no regrets about his decisions.
“Lordy, has this been painful,’’ he said. “I’ve gotten all kinds of rocks thrown at me and this has been really hard, but I think I’ve done the right thing at each turn.’’
Comey has been under intense pressure from both Republicans and Democrats to explain his decision-making, and he faced more criticism in Wednesday’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The hearing was scheduled to conduct general congressional oversight of the FBI, but politically sensitive investigations quickly became the focus of lawmakers’ questions.
The chairman of the committee, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), opened the hearing by saying that “a cloud of doubt hangs over the FBI.” He demanded that the bureau reveal more about how it has handled the probes.
“We need to know whether there was anything improper going on between the Trump campaign and the Russians, or if these allegations are just a partisan smear campaign that manipulated our government into chasing conspiracy theories,” Grassley said.
Comey began his prepared testimony by praising the work of the FBI, citing the recent successful investigations of bomb threats against Jewish community centers, hacking networks and doctors accused of female genital mutilation.
“I love this work, I love this job, and I love it because of the mission and the people I get to work with,’’ he said.
Grassley’s first question to Comey was about leaks, asking Comey if he had ever been an anonymous source for stories about Clinton or Trump.
“Never,’’ Comey said. Asked if he had authorized someone else to speak anonymously to reporters about those cases, the director said no.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked Comey what threat Russia posed to future U.S. elections. “In my view the greatest threat of any nation on earth given their intention and their capability,’’ Comey answered, adding that while Russia did not alter vote tallies in 2016, they have tried to do so in other countries and he said U.S. officials should expect them to try to do so in future U.S. elections.
“One of the lessons that particularly the Russians may have drawn from this is that it works,’’ Comey said.
Democrats repeatedly pressed Comey about his decision to notify Congress just days before the election that he was reopening the probe into Clinton’s use of a private email server for her work as secretary of state. Democrats are particularly upset about that decision because after the election, Comey acknowledged that the FBI had begun secretly investigating in late July whether any Trump associates might be working with Russian officials to meddle with the presidential campaign.
“It’s still very unclear — and I hope, director, that you will clear this up — why the FBI’s treatment of these two investigations was so dramatically different,” Feinstein said.
The FBI has already concluded that Russian intelligence hacked into Democratic computer systems and email accounts, stealing information that was published by WikiLeaks during the campaign.
Asked about WikiLeaks, Comey said he thought the anti-secrecy group was engaged in something more sinister than journalism.
“To my mind, it crosses a line when it moves from being trying to educate the public and instead becomes about intelligence porn, quite frankly,’’ said Comey. A “huge portion’’ of WikiLeaks’ activities “has nothing to do with legitimate news activity,’’ he said, “… but is simply about releasing classified information to damage the United States of America.’’
Trump Administration Considering the Removal of the Pretax Benefit of 401(k) and Similar Plans?
As time goes on Trump seems to be acting, ignoring his trumpeting, more and more like a TURD. The Oxford Club is a mixed bag, you have to sort the wheat from the chaff in most of what the send their members. Hopefully the 401K alarm below is just more chaff or there has been a change in the legislation since the proposal/miscommunication. Amazing.
From an email via The Oxford Club dated 5/2/2017:
Have They Lost Their %&*#! Minds?!
Marc Lichtenfeld, Chief Income Strategist, The Oxford Club
Last week, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn laid out President Trump’s proposal for tax reform.
Though details were scarce, there were a lot of things to like, including lower tax rates for individuals and businesses, elimination of the alternative minimum tax and a simplification of the tax code.
On the surface (which is as in-depth as Mnuchin and Cohn would get), most of it is good stuff.
But there’s a proposal out there that is so bad, it could completely wreck the retirements of millions of people.
The Trump administration is considering the removal of the pretax benefit of 401(k) and similar plans.
The news led me to blurt out the headline you see above. (Apologies to my office mates with delicate sensibilities.)
In a meeting with the Senate Banking Committee, Cohn proposed getting rid of the ability to lower your taxable income by contributing to a 401(k).
On Thursday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that the 401(k) pretax benefit would go away. Later that afternoon, the White House issued a statement saying it wouldn’t.
So either it’s making up policy on the fly or there is a great deal of confusion in the administration.
It’s an important detail.
Here’s an example of how it currently works…
If you earn $75,000 per year and contribute $5,000 to a 401(k), your taxable income is lowered by $5,000. So not only does the $5,000 you contributed grow tax-deferred, but you pay taxes on only $70,000 in income, rather than $75,000.
For someone earning $75,000, lowering their taxable income by $5,000 results in an immediate $1,250 tax savings.
That’s a big deal.
For many investors, that lower tax bill is a key reason they participate in a 401(k) plan.
Why would members of the government remove an incentive to save for retirement when Americans are facing a retirement savings crisis? The only answer is…
They have in fact lost their %&*#! minds.
The average household with a 401(k) headed by a pre-retiree (someone 54 to 64 years old) has just $111,000 in retirement savings.
Sorry to say, but that ain’t gonna cut it.
The average person will spend more than that on just healthcare in retirement. That doesn’t take into account things that are kind of important like food and housing.
According to Fidelity, a couple retiring today will spend $260,000 on healthcare in retirement.
When you look at all households, including those without 401(k)s, the numbers are even more dire. The median retirement savings falls to a puny $12,000 for near retirees and just $3,000 for all working households.
The government should be doing whatever it can to incentivize people to save for retirement – otherwise we’ll all be paying for it later, with more expensive dollars.
Tax reform is supposed to be revenue neutral. So the federal government is desperate for funds to pay for the tax cuts. But taking away an incentive to save is as bad an idea as sending in law enforcement to drag a middle-aged doctor off of a United Airlines flight.
Actually, it’s much worse.
Of course, your representative doesn’t care. He or she has a congressional pension that will pay them an average of $41,316 per year. Plus, Congress has a fantastic retirement savings plan. It matches 100% of the dollars that they contribute. Or I should say we match 100% of the dollars that they contribute.
So if your congressman saves $5,000 in their retirement plan, you and I contribute the other $5,000. (Think about that the next time you’re putting in long hours at work.)
In the real world, less than one in 10 companies match 100% of employees’ contributions.
It’s tough for many working families to put money away for retirement. Removing an incentive and tax break will only lower the savings rate and cause the retirement savings crisis to worsen.
We need to find ways to encourage people to save, so that taxpayers aren’t bailing them out 10, 20 and 30 years from now.
Washington doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to good ideas. But taking away incentives to save for retirement is one of the worst.
Call your representatives and senators, and make them care. Let them know that not only do you want the pretax benefits of 401(k)s and other retirement plans to remain, but you will do everything in your power to make sure they are voted out of office if they go along with this asinine idea.
They don’t want to give up those cushy pensions and retirement plans, so they might just listen.
Good investing,
Marc
Rob Quist, Democrat Nominee for Montana’s At-Large U.S. House Seat, Encourages Climate Skeptics to Commit Suicide
Rob “TURD” Quist is nearly as ignorant as Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA) who asks if Guam will tip over if the military sends more troops to the island. How does dying by asphyxiation have anything to do with how environmental forces work and humanity’s affect upon them, i.e. anthropomorphic climate change? Quist is nothing but a charlatan and if the voters of Montana cannot see through his BS then they deserve this TURD. Unfortunately the rest of us would have to deal with the TURD as well. It might be illustrative of the compassionate and tolerant qualities of the Left if Quist would lead by example.
From breitbart.com dated 5/1/2017 by Sean Moran entitled, “Montana Democrat Rob Quist Encourages Climate Skeptics To Consider Suicide”
<snip>
The Republican nominee answered a question about climate change and the Clean Power Plan saying, “Everyone believes that the climate is changing.” However, he added, “Using EPA’s data calculated by the Cato Institute; they said if we shut down every coal-fired plant in North America our environment would be two-hundredths of a degree cooler a hundred years from now…for that we are willing to give up 7,000 jobs in Montana and $1.5 billion in annual revenue? That’s not a smart business decision.”
Quist responded to Gianforte. Rather than refuting the Republican nominee’s argument, he encouraged climate skeptics to consider ending their lives. He said, “To me this a cumulative thing, you cannot just say closing one plant or not is going to make a difference. This is something that the entire world needs to address and you know what, if any of you that feel like this is not a problem, I challenge you to go into your car in your garage, start your car and see what happens there.”
Kim un-Jong Experiences Projectile Dysfunction, Again
Porky in PJs with the really, really bad haircut once again tries to test-fire a missile but it subsequently (30 miles?) falls onto his own country. Talk about a despot’s failure to launch, Kimmy is the posture boy.
See http://www.breitbart.com/news/the-latest-japan-missile-fell-within-n-koreas-borders/
Trumpophiles Take Note
Chuck Baldwin makes some good points. Ignore at your/our own peril.
No Hope In Trump; No Hope In DC
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The Price of Al Gore’s Global Warming Hoax ‘Fix’ is UGE!
The title says it, other than Al Gore, TURD.
From constitution.com dated 4/25/2017 by Andrew West entitled, “Al Gore Puts A Price Tag on Global Warming Hoax “Fix”, And It Is ENORMOUS”
For some strange reason, liberal climate change hoaxers are continuing to put a microphone or a camera in front of former Vice President Al Gore.
As the most recognizable face in the litany of lunatic leftists who foolishly subscribe to the phony narrative behind the global warming hoax, Gore has been an integral part of developing the culture of ignorance that permeates the entire movement.
Gore’s interest in the subject began as a business venture; a fact that many democrats would like us all to forget. The former Vice President first established a “carbon credits” company in which he would prey on the guilt of entitled Americans who believed that the way in which they lived their lives was further enhancing their carbon footprint – a term that had barely been used previous to Gore’s involvement in the hoax. Then, after Al Gore’s company was ready to receive customers, and their money, the former politician released his now-infamous propaganda film “An Inconvenient Truth”. The film was a box office success, riding the leftist wave that was permeating the nation at the time, and it propelled Gore’s carbon credits company into a massive windfall of Americans’ guilt-money.
Now, after releasing a second film to a much more skeptical audience, Gore is looking to put a price tag on the end of “global warming” the way a snake oil salesman puts a price on the wares that he is peddling.
“A group of executives who want to fight global warming has published a new report calling for countries to spend up to $600 billion a year over the next two decades to boost green energy deployment and energy efficiency equipment.
“The Energy Transitions Commission’s (ETC) report claims ‘additional investments of around $300-$600 billion per annum do not pose a major macroeconomic challenge,’ which they say will help the world meet the goals laid out in the Paris agreement.
“ETC is made up of energy executives, activist leaders and investment bankers, including former Vice President Al Gore, who would no doubt get a piece of the trillions of dollars they are calling for.
“ETC’s goal is to ‘accelerate change towards low-carbon energy systems that enable robust economic development’ and limit global warming. ETC’s report comes out as the Trump administration considers whether or not to stay party to the Paris agreement, which went into effect in 2016.”
The global warming charade may be on its death bed, but Gore seems hellbent on milking the cultural phenomenon for all its worth before its inevitable end. With republican Donald Trump in the White House, and with conservatives making up a majority of both houses of Congress, it could prove rather difficult for the profiteering “activist” to accomplish any project that requires such a leftist leap of faith.
As with all trendy pseudoscience, the global warming hoax will likely go the way of spiritualism and Uri Geller’s bending-spoon tricks.