One thousand, four hundred and twenty four…that’s the number of days that have passed since the Democrat-controlled Senate performed their constitutional duty to pass a budget, more than a year before the ubiquitous iPad was invented. Judging by the contents of that budget, we can see why Democrats were scared to reveal their plans before Obama was safely re-elected and no longer accountable to the voters. It is unbridled plastic card that passes for the Democrat budgeting process.
Such sheer irresponsibility reminds me of P.J. O’Rourke, the civil libertarian who once said “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” Admittedly, it is not fair to compare elected Democrats to drunken teenage boys who, even with a fleet of cars and a swimming pool filled with whiskey could not hope to achieve as much damage as is being done by Democrats right now.
The Senate budget demands nearly one trillion dollars in new tax increases, on top of the nearly $700 billion already conceded by Republicans just a few months ago in the “Fiscal Cliff” deal. An almost equal amount would supposedly be cut from spending, but considering the bait-and-switch tactics that have become the modus operandi for Democrats, it is hard to believe that those cuts would ever come to fruition.
The whole exercise has become Kabuki Theater, a laughable dance of fools and charlatans that has no basis in reality. It is impossible to take seriously the trustworthiness of a party which demonized as “harsh” and “draconian” the previous budget submitted by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), which contained near-double digit increases in the entitlement spending, and took more than three decades to balance the budget. In a nation of rational adults, the Paul Ryan budget would have been seen as irresponsible, and it is only due to the unadulterated insanity of the Democrat budget that the Ryan budget seemed reasonable.
The most recent Republican House budget takes a full decade to balance the budget, but only by assuming that funding for ObamaCare would be repealed; something that would never make it past the Democrat-controlled Senate or Obama. That has about as much chance of happening as Obama rejecting the corrupt special interest money he has long preached against (you can buy four face-to-face meetings a year with Obama for a cool half million dollars by donating to his re-branded Organizing for America campaign apparatus). By comparison, the Ryan budget is far more responsible, achieving deficit reduction and economic stimulus through growth rather than tax increases, but even it relies on unrealistic assumptions.
How do we get to a point where we can pass realistic, responsible budgets that fund the legitimate functions of government, stimulate economic growth by reducing the crushing tax burden, and in the process reduce the skyrocketing national debt (the interest payments on which we now spend more on than education, homeland security, transportation, and taking care of our veterans…combined!)? It’s impossible to know, since Democrats claim we have no debt problem. That’s like me saying that having a monthly credit card INTEREST payment higher than my mortgage payment is just fine. Americans get nothing in return for those hundreds of billions of dollars in interest payments. How many of the salaries of those firefighters, schoolteachers, and policemen that Obama surrounded himself with in a press conference before the sequester kicked in could have been paid with the $359.8 BILLION dollars paid in interest on the debt in FY2012? That would be 7,196,000 of these fine workers at $50,000 per year.
But alas, getting Democrats to act responsibly is probably not an achievable goal in the near future. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, referring to the stark differences between the House and Senate budgets, said “We have presented very different visions for how our country should work and who it should work for…but I am hopeful that we can bridge this divide.” Who our country should work for? Shouldn’t it work for ALL Americans? Or have we now decided that certain Americans are no longer worthy of equality under the law?
The Democrat/Senate budget raises even more taxes, cuts hundreds of billions more from the defense budget (more than has already been cut, which former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, no defense hawk, warned would weaken America’s military readiness), and once again leaves entitlement and welfare spending, the primary drivers of the rising deficits and IC card, virtually untouched.
Questions about gas prices come up all the time, particularly when motorists see more than one price at the pump. Massachusetts does have rules that prohibit placing a surcharge on the use of a credit card. However, as much as it seems like the same thing, a gas station can discount the price for customers paying in cash.
So, discounting is fine and surcharging isn’t. While most stations charge the same price for cash or credit, there is a reason why some discount for the use of cash – or, in this case, a smartphone or checking account-linked card. Gas stations tend to have pretty tight margins and steering customers away from credit cards helps them to avoid the fees assessed for every transaction, something that cuts into the bottom line.
The folks at Framingham-based Cumberland Farms don’t see themselves as elitist, noting their low-price coffee and soda. Cumberland Farms said it introduced its SmartPay system to avoid credit card and debit card processing fees and pass some of the savings to customers in the form of discounts.
If customers don’t have a smart phone, they can pick up a SmartPay card, which is linked to a checking account and works like a debit card. SmartPay cards are available at Cumberland Farm stores.
“The SmartPay Check-Link payment program was designed to be as inclusive as possible for all of our customers, whether they use a smartphone or prefer the free SmartPay payment card,” said Kate Ngo, Cumberland Farms’ senior manager of brand strategy.
As much as bank fees might be an issue for some consumers, free checking accounts with minimal balance requirements are available at local banks and credit unions. So, most folks, whether they have a smartphone or not, should be able to figure out a way to get this discount – if it really mattered to them.
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