It's Still Our Washington

Blame Washington

One of the nation’s largest federal contractors reported a $2 billion loss Wednesday and blamed it on defense cuts, a sign that the government spending that provided the rocket fuel for the metro area’s decade-long economic expansion is now dissipating.

General Dynamics, based in Falls Church, said it was devaluing its information technology business by $2 billion amid falling government demand. The announcement was particularly worrisome because IT contracting is the key ingredient to the metro area’s government-powered growth.

Information technology appears to be one of the first segments of the private sector to sustain tangible damage from federal budget cuts — because it’s easier for the government to stop rewiring offices than it is to stop building a ship or a tank.

The region’s dependence on government IT, and contracting in general, makes it particularly vulnerable to the spending reductions put in place by President Obama and Congress over the past two years. Government procurement spending in the area grew by double digits from 2000 to 2010. In 2012, it shrank by 5.5 percent.

There’s a certain symmetry to the timing: All that federal spending pushed the Washington region to the top of the list of major U.S. metropolitan areas for job creation after the Great Recession, and it helped fill office parks along the Dulles Toll Road and elsewhere with well-paid white-collar workers.

Now, as growth is slowly picking up in many other cities, federal budget-tightening is dampening the economic outlook here.  Read more here. 

 

But, what would you (General Dynamics) expect to have happened when the Federal Government cuts back, across the board, on its spending initiatives?  Did GD really think that everybody else should be cut back but them?  Of course, that would be a Republican world; a world in which the common man and the middle would have to “suck it up” so that business and industry could prosper and survive and grow.  Everybody wants the Government to spend less until it is time for them to be pulled off the teat.

It's Our Washington

It’s Just Politics

The House overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday afternoon to allow the federal government to keep borrowing money until the middle of May, as Republicans attempt to defuse the debt ceiling as political issue.

The legislation, which was unveiled last week at a House Republican retreat in Virginia, passed on a 285-144 vote.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday the Senate will pass the House bill without changes, noting that the legislation is “clean,” meaning it contains no spending cuts. Republicans spent 2011 insisting on matching the debt ceiling with trillions of dollars in spending reductions.

“The president believes that we need to, as a country, do the responsible thing and without drama or delay, pay our bills, meet our commitments,” 

White House spokesman Jay Carney said after the vote. “It is certainly important to recognize that the bill that passed the House today, the position that House Republicans took beginning late last week, represents a fundamental change from a strategy they pursued up until that point…. We are glad to see that that strategy is not being pursued anymore, so this is a welcome development.”

This all means that the nation’s debt limit, once the most potent of political weapons, is off the table until May 18. Republicans hope that this focuses Washington’s attention on replacing the automatic spending cuts that hit the Defense department in March, government spending which expires at the end of March and prescriptions for entitlement reform.

In theory, the bill would also pressure the Senate to pass a budget — something it hasn’t done in several years. Under the legislation, if either chamber fails to pass a budget by April 15, its members will not get paid.  Read more:

 

Yeah right!   

There is no way that the Congress, either the Senate or the House, will do anything to jeopardize their paycheck nor will they do anything to prevent them from getting a special healthcare package not available to the rest of us, nor is there any way that they will willingly give up any of the perks associated with their elected office; however, they will argue and fuss, blame and point-the-finger, in an effort to delay legislation that would help the middle class either in the long run or the short run; and, it is nothing personal, it is just business…  no, not business but politics: politics at its worst.

Hump Day Art

Just When We Think It is Getting Safe Again

North Korea’s Pissing Contest

North Korea threatens war over UN sanctions...

North Korea has announced plans to carry out a third nuclear test as part of "upcoming all-out action" against America. 

Defying a resolution issued by the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday that condemned Pyongyang for test-firing a missile in December and tightened existing sanctions on the regime, North Korea's National Defense Commission said the new nuclear test would be part of its action against the "sworn enemy of the Korean people". 

North Korea also vowed to push ahead with launches of more long-range rockets. 

“We do not hide that a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the DPRK one after another and a nuclear test of higher level which will be carried out by it in the upcoming all-out action, a new phase of the anti-US struggle that has lasted century after century, will target against the US, the sworn enemy of the Korean people,” the commission said. 

“Settling accounts with the US needs to be done with force, not with words, as it regards jungle law as the rule of its survival.” 

Describing the UN Security Council as “a marionette of the US,” North Korean state media claimed the resolutions are “products of its blind pursuance of the hostile policy of the US. 

“The UNSC should apologise for its crime of seriously encroaching upon the independence of a sovereign state ... and repeal all the unreasonable ‘resolutions’ at once,” KCNA reported.

Pyongyang also declared that no further talks on removing nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula are now possible and that a “nuclear test of a higher level” would be carried out. 

Intelligence reports have suggested that the North has been preparing to carry out a new underground nuclear test after global condemnation of the successful launch of a missile on December 12. Pyongyang has claimed that the launch was of a rocket to put a satellite into orbit. 

Disagreement within the UN Security Council - primarily a result of China, which holds a veto, insisting that retaliatory measures be watered down - meant that North Korea has had plenty of time to prepare for the inevitable responses. 

While experts say North Korea does not have the capability to hit the US with its missiles, recent tests and rhetoric indicate the country is working toward that goal.

A Solution to Over-Population

The Cost of Having a Family

 

The cost of raising a child has hit an all-time high, according to a new report.  Figures from insurer LV='s annual Cost of a Child Report show that the cost of a bringing a child up to the age of 21 has reached £222,458 - more than £4,000 higher than last year and up £82,000 on ten years ago.

The insurer estimates that this is set to reach £350,000 by 2023 if costs continue to increase at the same rate. 

The report will be a further blow for hard-working families as cash-strapped parents continue to struggle with rising household bills and wage freezes and cuts to child benefit. The right to receive the payments, worth £20.30 a week for the first child and £13.40 for further children, was removed earlier this month from households with one earner on a salary of more than £60,000 and reduced for families where one member is paid more than £50,000. 

Education and childcare remains the biggest expenditure for parents. The cost of education, including uniforms, after school clubs and university costs, has shot up from £32,593 to £72,832 per child in the last ten years.   Childcare costs have also rocketed, up from £39,613 in 2003 to £63,738 today. 

The rising cost of nursery care is high on the agenda for the Coalition. But it recently backed away from plans to give every parent with children under five tax relief worth about £2,000 per child. It had been billed as the principal policy to emerge from the Coalition’s Mid-Term Review. 

The cost of electronic gadgets has presented a new financial strain on family budgets, with annual spend increasing to £302, as have holidays, up from £11,458 a decade ago to £16,195. However, the increase on each is likely to be due to families committing more of their discretionary spending rather than being just down to price rises. 

“The cost of raising a child continues to soar and is now at a ten year high,” said Mark Jones, head of protection at LV=. 

“Everyone wants the best for their children, but the rising cost of living is pushing parent’s finances to the limit. There seems to be no sign of this trend reversing. If the costs associated with bringing up children continue to rise at the same pace, parents could face a bill of over £350,000 in ten years’ time.” 

Over the last ten years, London (£239,123), the South East (£237,233) and the East of England (£233,363) have remained the three most expensive places to raise children. 

While families in the South West have seen the biggest hike in costs, now paying £100,077 more per child than they were ten years ago. 

Category	Ten years ago: 2003	Last year: 2012	This year: 2013	% difference from last year	% difference from 2003
Education*	£32,593	£71,780	£72,832	1.5%	123.5%
Childcare & babysitting	£39,613	£62,099	£63,738	2.6%	60.9%
Food	£14,918	£18,667	£19,270	3.2%	29.2%
Clothing	£11,360	£10,781	£10,770	-0.1%	-5.2%
Holidays	£11,458	£15,532	£16,195	4.3%	41.3%
Hobbies & toys	£8,861	£9,248	£9,316	0.7%	5.1%
Leisure and recreation	£6,366	£7,303	£7,353	0.7%	15.5%
Pocket money	£3,386	£4,337	£4,458	2.8%	31.6%
Furniture	£2,074	£3,373	£3,462	2.6%	66.9%
Personal	£925	£1,143	£1,155	1.0%	24.9%
Other	£8,845	£13,761	£13,909	1.1%	57.3%
TOTAL	£140,398	£218,024	£222,458	2.0%	58.4%

1.5796 US Dollars (USD) is equal to 1 UK Pound.   Or…   £222,458 would be approximately $350,000 which is a nice size chunk of change.