President Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

So Republicans will support unions by approving the project. You say that right here and you said as much in your earlier post. It's okay. It's politics.

What is your point? Will Republicans support jobs, even union jobs, over environmentalist wackos? YES. So what? So will Dems, but not until they milk the Environmentalist wackos for campaign funds and votes which they need.

A year from now the pipeline will be approved, the wackos thrown under the bus and we will be getting jobs out of the work...but not this year as it does not benefit Obama to do so now.

It also is not in Obamas interest to allow the Repubs to say they created the jobs.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Gary and Alla

[웃 910]

$7 billion, that's 2 good Obama campaign seasons.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

What is your point? Will Republicans support jobs, even union jobs, over environmentalist wackos? YES. So what? So will Dems, but not until they milk the Environmentalist wackos for campaign funds and votes which they need.

A year from now the pipeline will be approved, the wackos thrown under the bus and we will be getting jobs out of the work...but not this year as it does not benefit Obama to do so now.

It also is not in Obamas interest to allow the Repubs to say they created the jobs.

The longer they wait on that pipeline though, the more it's going to cost us. Alaska made that mistake a few times...putting off big jobs and then watched the price of the projects sky rocket due to inflation. We need those jobs now.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Happy, happy Chinese! Maybe they will reopen the heavy-crude refinery that Clinton approved the sale of when he sold them the Naval base in Long Beach, and sell the refined fuel and asphalt to California. Cheap gas is a coming, and more road widening projects! Win, win! Thank you Obama! California loves you!

The longer they wait on that pipeline though, the more it's going to cost us. Alaska made that mistake a few times...putting off big jobs and then watched the price of the projects sky rocket due to inflation. We need those jobs now.

The pipeline is a bust. The Chinese get all the oil! California wins again!

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Happy, happy Chinese! Maybe they will reopen the heavy-crude refinery that Clinton approved the sale of when he sold them the Naval base in Long Beach, and sell the refined fuel and asphalt to California. Cheap gas is a coming, and more road widening projects! Win, win! Thank you Obama! California loves you!

The pipeline is a bust. The Chinese get all the oil! California wins again!

Looks like not only will Cali knock down that $13 billion dollar debt, Cali just might get Moonbeam Browns high speed rail while their at it.

[웃 910]

Looks like not only will Cali knock down that $13 billion dollar debt, Cali just might get Moonbeam Browns high speed rail while their at it.

That $7 billion pipeline looks tiny compared to Cali's STAGGERING TWO.TRILLION.DOLLAR.GDP.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

That $7 billion pipeline looks tiny compared to Cali's STAGGERING TWO.TRILLION.DOLLAR.GDP.

I'm no math wizard but what happens when you make $100 yet you spend $105. I'm guessing this question may help explain why California is $13 billion dollars in debt and sinking fast. That and California has the worst credit rating of all states in the USA. Funny how California's has that big time GDP yet it's big time in debt and it's credit rating sucks the big one.

I'm sure all those illegals in California are paying their fare share of medical and taxes though.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Why_Me

[웃 910]

I'm no math wizard but what happens when you make $100 yet you spend $105. I'm guessing this question may help explain why California is $13 billion dollars in debt and sinking fast. That and California has the worst credit rating of all states in the USA. Funny how California's has that big time GDP yet it's big time in debt and it's credit rating sucks the big one.

I'm sure all those illegals in California are paying their fare share of medical and taxes though.

That is it! $13 billion. Not $130 billion? Not $1.3 trillion. A MERE $13 billion.

That is pocket change to a $2 trillion economy.

Let's put it into perspective. The USA has a $15 trillion economy and has a debt of $15 trillion. 1:1. BAD! WOW! OMG!

But $13 billion to a $2 trillion economy!!! Let's shrink all this debt to understandable terms since NOBODY can digest these massive numbers!

CALI:

$13 debt and earns $200 a year!

USA:

$1500 debt and earns $1500 a year (technically only pulling in $230 in TAX revenue for 2011 but the people as a whole pool in $1500)!

As it starts to make more sense with numbers that we can relate to we start to ask ourselves if owing $13 with a yearly salary of $200 is a bad thing? Obviously not!

Common sense tells us your numbers are WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY OFFFFFFFF because we all know Cali is in some deep sh!t. They actually owe $360 billion on a $2 trillion economy. So $360 debt, and California's earn $2,000 a year, but the Cali government only gets a very small fraction of that $2,000 in taxes, maybe $400 at best.

Bottom line is Cali is bad, but the USA as a whole is 10X worse!!!!

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I'm no math wizard but what happens when you make $100 yet you spend $105.

Then you're California. If, on the other hand, you make $50, bum another $25 from your neighbors and spend $120, then you're Alaska.

Found this cool chart that lets you visualize how bad states like Alaska really look. Vermont, too, by the way. Must have something to do with all those guns being carried around in those states.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Mr. Big Dog

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Then you're California. If, on the other hand, you make $50, bum another $25 from your neighbors and spend $120, then you're Alaska.

Found this cool chart that lets you visualize how bad states like Alaska really look. Vermont, too, by the way. Must have something to do with all those guns being carried around in those states.

Alaska is over $50 billion to the good as of 2012. Now if the Feds want to give all that money to the Alaska natives up here then maybe someone should write their Congressman. Not our fault the Feds like giving tax payer money to the Alaska natives. If that money is cut off it doesn't affect me one bit.

So ya, top $50 billion dollars...and that's with your little ol GDP. California on the other hand has the biggest GDP of all the states yet it's $13 billion in the hole and has the worst credit rating of any and all states. So much for a big GDP if you can't balance your budget.

[웃 910]

Alaska is over $50 billion to the good as of 2012. Now if the Feds want to give all that money to the Alaska natives up here then maybe someone should write their Congressman. Not our fault the Feds like giving tax payer money to the Alaska natives. If that money is cut off it doesn't affect me one bit.

So ya, top $50 billion dollars...and that's with your little ol GDP. California on the other hand has the biggest GDP of all the states yet it's $13 billion in the hole and has the worst credit rating of any and all states. So much for a big GDP if you can't balance your budget.

$13 billion in the hole is LAUGHABLE for an economy the size of California.

Just take their population of 37 million. Divide it into $13 billion and each Californian would pay $350 and they would have balanced the budget.

On the other hand, each citizen in the US would have to chip in about $50,000 to retire our entire country's debt.

Edited January 19, 2012 by ☠

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

$13 billion in the hole is LAUGHABLE for an economy the size of California.

Just take their population of 37 million. Divide it into $13 billion and each Californian would pay $350 and they would have balanced the budget.

On the other hand, each citizen in the US would have to chip in about $50,000 to retire our entire country's debt.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/01/californias-debt-now-risk_n_481058.html

California's debt is seen by investors as riskier than Kazakhstan's, according to Bloomberg News. Five-year credit default swaps tied to California's debt, which are a key measure of the market's belief in the likelihood of default, are actually trading at 100 basis points above those of Kazakhstan. In other words, the market believes a developing country of just 15.7 million people is actually less likely to default on its debt than California, which makes up the eighth-largest economy in the world.

Here's Bloomberg News:

Kazakhstan and California, the lowest-rated U.S. state, share a Baa1 ranking, three steps above non-investment grade, from Moody's Investors Service. California was given a BBB by Fitch Ratings and A- by Standard & Poor's, four levels above non-investment grade. Both companies rate Kazakhstan lower, at BBB-, one step above high-risk, high-yield junk.

And last week, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, the nation's second largest bank, warned that California's $20 billion budget gap could pose a bigger risk than the Greek debt crisis. Here's Dimon: "Greece itself would not be an issue for this company, nor would any other country. We don't really foresee the European Union coming apart."

In January, Standard & Poor's cut California's debt rating amid concerns that the state was not doing enough to bolster its budgetary woes. Reporting on the downgrade, Reuters pointed out that there are several countries with debt trading at levels above California's: "The cost to insure California's debt with credit default swaps is now higher than debt of developing countries, such as Kazakhstan, Lebanon and Uruguay. It costs $277,000 per year for five years to insure $10 million in California debt, compared with $172,000 for Kazakh debt."

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/26/local/la-me-state-debt-20110226

But the state has had an insatiable appetite for debt in recent years. In the last decade, the debt per resident has tripled, to $2,362, according to the credit-rating agency Moody's Investors Service.

That means for every household of four, California owes nearly $9,500 — more than the government spends to put a child through a year of school. In the next budget, the amount devoted to debt repayment is expected to exceed the money invested in California's prized public universities.

Borrowed money has proved politically irresistible in Sacramento, a safe middle ground for politicians in the constant war between Democrats and Republicans over taxes and service cuts. Campaigns for bonds often herald them for providing projects and services without new taxes.

Voters have approved borrowing in the last 10 years for such causes as stem-cell research ($3 billion), high-speed rail ($10 billion), and parks, water and the environment ($14 billion). They even took on $15 billion in debt to paper over a deficit that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said would never reemerge — something economists have scolded the state for doing.

Because of its rock-bottom credit rating, California pays a premium for its loans. Taxpayers must fork over roughly $2 for every $1 borrowed — about 20% more than top-rated states, said Matt Fabian, an analyst at Municipal Market Advisors, a bond research firm.

http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-01-19/opinion/27036341_1_debt-ceiling-debt-service-unfunded-pension-liability

How much does California owe?

As the national discussion continues on raising the U.S. debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion, Californians also should ask: How much is the Golden State in the red?

We've grown numb to annual budget meltdowns - shortfalls of $20 billion have become the norm. But what is our state's total debt? Would you believe at least $265 billion?

California's debt sorts into three buckets:

Budget deferrals, required reimbursements and related debt now total nearly $40 billion. How did "kicking the can down the road" get the state to such a large number? Budget gimmicks to achieve a balanced budget for one year (borrowing from local government, required repayments to public schools and other one-time actions) have added up. As Gov. Jerry Brown highlighted in his budget proposal, most of the budget "solutions" over the past three years "were temporary or failed because of court decisions or faulty assumptions."

General obligation borrowing is authorized by voters for school buildings, clean water, housing, stem cell research and other expenditures. According to the state treasurer, the total outstanding is $77 billion, the majority of which is for long-term infrastructure investments.

How does this debt compare with those of other large states? On a debt per capita basis, we rank second highest at $2,362, with New York at $3,135. (Texas is the lowest at $520; Michigan follows at $748.)

Debt on general obligation borrowing does offer a bright spot, with debt service peaking in fiscal year 2011, remaining flat through 2016, and then trending consistently downward. That trend could be short lived, however. Voters have already given the state the authority to issue an additional $43 billion in bonds, mostly for transportation, clean air and clean water. And voters can add more debt in upcoming elections.

Pensions and retiree health promises for state workers are an unfunded pension liability (i.e., the amount by which pension promises exceed pension assets) of $96 billion as of June 2009.

However, that figure assumes that those pension funds will increase their assets faster than U.S. investment assets grew in the past century. So, if they earned at the past century's rate, (which itself was very high historically), the unfunded liability is $256 billion. Using the method employed by Alicia H. Munnell of the Center for Retirement Research and formerly of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, the liability is $568 billion.

So how much is the Golden State in the red? At least $265 billion, and perhaps $737 billion, both greater than official state reports suggest.

For perspective, the proposed California general fund budget for next year is $84 billion. In a best-case scenario, per capita indebtedness is more than $7,400. In a worst-case scenario, it is $19,800, nearly one-half the U.S. figure of $45,600. Given those dismal numbers, Californians would be served well by focusing on state finances as much as on federal finances.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Why_Me

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

That is it! $13 billion. Not $130 billion? Not $1.3 trillion. A MERE $13 billion.

That is pocket change to a $2 trillion economy.

Let's put it into perspective. The USA has a $15 trillion economy and has a debt of $15 trillion. 1:1. BAD! WOW! OMG!

But $13 billion to a $2 trillion economy!!! Let's shrink all this debt to understandable terms since NOBODY can digest these massive numbers!

CALI:

$13 debt and earns $2000 a year!

USA:

$1500 debt and earns $1500 a year (technically only pulling in $230 in TAX revenue for 2011 but the people as a whole pool in $1500)!

As it starts to make more sense with numbers that we can relate to we start to ask ourselves if owing $13 with a yearly salary of $2000 is a bad thing? Obviously not!

Common sense tells us your numbers are WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY OFFFFFFFF because we all know Cali is in some deep sh!t. They actually owe $360 billion on a $2 trillion economy. So $360 debt, and California's earn $2,000 a year, but the Cali government only gets a very small fraction of that $2,000 in taxes, maybe $400 at best.

Bottom line is Cali is bad, but the USA as a whole is 10X worse!!!!

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

You know it's bad when your credit rating is on par with Kazakhstan. Good luck with that one Californians.

[웃 910]

You know it's bad when your credit rating is on par with Kazakhstan. Good luck with that one Californians.

02/14/2012

S&P Upgrades California's Financial Outlook to 'Positive'

On Tuesday, rating agency Standard & Poor's upgraded California's financial outlook from stable to positive. To avoid a possible cash flow crisis in March, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill (SB 95) authorizing the state to borrow from various earmarked funds. The state also plans to delay Medi-Cal reimbursements to physicians. Medi-Cal is the state's Medicaid program.

http://www.californi...o-positive.aspx

Edited February 15, 2012 by ☠