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  • From: "Lynda" <lurine AT com-pair.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] State vs. Fed
  • Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:27:45 -0800

The answer to part of your question is in the link you sent "Specifically, they are questioning whether NAFTA and World Trade Organization rules will apply to state and city governments receiving stimulus money for local infrastructure projects." If the states tell the Feds to buzz off, then the Feds are going to be left playing make-nice with other countries without anything to back up their claims.

And, I think Marie's statements give you the answer to her angst. Bob said that taxpayer funded employees are a drain. Marie is a taxpayer funded employee. Bob's comment was a generalization and I'm thinking Marie took it as a personal attack.

Now, having worked for the Feds and at the county and city level, and having collected a pay check from those same taxpayer dollars, I can tell you that a great big % of my fellow employees were professional gold bricks! I personally think that the whole paid holidays and sick leave thing are ridiculous with the sick leave being massively abused! Anyone, and I mean ANYONE who says otherwise is playing pretend! Government employees, in general, take longer breaks, longer lunch hours, do more personal business on the clock and take more items home than private sector employees!

Ya know, I was no model employee and I'm certainly not a whiz kid at what I did. What I am is someone who is easily bored <g> I need to be busy. I couldn't spend my time wandering the halls or sitting in the break room yapping. In 6 months, I set up a new filing system, completely updated and cateloged and set up job specific binders to put in all the city's vehicles. Something that had been worked on for FIVE YEARS and gotten no where! Three employees had been working on it. Now, do the math on the wages and toss that money down the drain! Five years, three employees! Something that could be and was done in 6 months! That is typical. So, Bob is right.

And, the worst of the waste of taxpayers money is in the very projects that a big portion of the supposed "stimulous" package is going to fund! Davis-Bacon is a farce!

BTW, CA beens doing something of this nature, plus sueing the Feds on and off since they became a state <g> I would say that the tipping point came with NAFTA and NCLB and this latest bit is the straw that broke the camel's back!

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- From: "EarthNSky" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>

Well, I certainly did not expect the responses I've seen on the list
today. I had heard about this before, but as you all know, politics
ain't my thang, so I posted the article hoping to learn something from
the great Homestead minds<g> since so many of y'all's states were
listed(CA, MO, AZ, WA, ME, PA, CO, etc. etc.). I 'figured' you guys
would explain the thinking on the legislation and what prompted it. It
is not hard to guess AZ and CA's beef with the border situation being
what it is, but that is just a guess on my end. When I followed the
links in the article, I saw that some of the 'legislation' dated back
into the 1990's and spanned multiple administrations, so many, if not
most would have nothing to do with the bailouts, but I am sure that is
adding fuel to the fire. I just want you to know that I did not post
the article as some kind of backhanded slur on the Obama administration.
(For that kind of thing, see the P.S<g>) Alas, I suppose I will have
to read all of that stuff and research it on my own.

Marie McHarry wrote:

Oh. Give. Me. A. Break.

Most if not all of these states are running severe deficits and are
praying that the feds will throw them some dollars.

Probably. I believe GA falls into that category if I have understood
the news stories correctly. My thinking on this is that they are
probably playing both ends again the middle. Perhaps GA files the bill
to protest, basically a follow the leader/cover thy ass/yeah, what he
said kind of motive, but since our bill was from 1995, things and
leadership has changed and yeah, everyone wants a handout these days.
Georgia is apparently no different than the city of Atlanta, Fannie Mae,
and other fiscally troubled institutions.


The Republican
governors supported the stimulus because they don't want to see
massive layoffs in their states. It's not like we're a poor country.

Again, this whole thing predates the stimulus in most states, so I
really don't think it is relevant.


Here's a comparison of individual state economies to those of other
countries. I think it's the whole tax cutting craze that has hurt
many states: hello, states have to collect revenues to spend on
public projects (roads, bridges, schools, safety net programs, etc.)

http://tinyurl.com/bnnkeh


You are making mental jumps that I can't make Marie. I don't understand
the connection between a state's economic equivalent and saying that the
Federal government has overstepped it's responsibility and has tied the
hands of the states. I do like the map, however, and was happy that
GA=Switzerland instead of some third world economy. <g>
Maybe I am just naive and simple, but we are the _United_ states, with
states being the noun. We were states first, and a nation second.It is
my understanding that when the states decide that the Fed no longer
represents their interests or has fallen down on their
responsibility(like protecting the borders), it is a State's right to
dismantle the Fed and reformulate it. I thought that was what the
article was about, and I am missing the association with state's
economies.


And in another post:

That used to be called taking care of the community. Do you want to
live in a gated community with your own rentacops? Or do you want a
community with police, fire, roads, public health services, etc?

Neither. I just want to be left alone. I can't rely on police or fire
as it is, and my road almost tore the runners off my truck today-riding
my bike is freaking dangerous. I've never used public health services
as an adult.


Some days, I think you're a jackass.


I feel really dense. I went back and read and reread Bob's comments and
your comments. I don't understand what prompted the above remark. It
is not like you to say something like that unwarranted, so if you will,
please spell out your motive for saying that. I am blonde, you know. :)
I kept thinking that maybe there was a post that I was missing, but 12
hours on, I don't think so.


P.S. This is too funny..
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/17/buy.american/index.html

Load the CNN page and step back a bit from the computer to fuzz your
eyes(or just take off your glasses<g>) You know that Enzyte commercial
with Smilin'Bob??? LOL...
Tell me that Obama doesn't look like Smiling Bob..
Schwing! Now, now ladies, snap out of it!!!

B


--
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius
will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the
world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone
are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve
the problems of the human race"

~ Calvin Coolidge
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