Minor IRS improvement

This is the year the IRS gave up on mailing tax packages (instructions and forms) to us poor taxpayers. Up here you gotta download 'em. I don't know what people without internet access, a computer and a printer do.
However, all is not dark. The down loadable forms are trick PDF files that allow you to enter numbers in the blanks and them print out the completed form.
Neat. Up til now I had been doing my taxes on a Excel spreadsheet and then entering the spreadsheet results on a paper form 1040 using pen and ink. In my atrocious handwriting. This year I can type the stuff in and print it out, all neat.
I never got into TurboTax. I tried it once, and it was all web based and stored all my stuff somewhere out there on the web, not on my private and secure hard drive. I went back to Excel.

Ten year deficit projections

Would you believe totally wishful thinking? How can anyone project ten days into the future, let alone the years? The current budget discussion would be more honest if the debaters stuck to one year projections.

Words of the Weasel, Part XVI

"Tax expenditures" which really means tax deductions and exemptions. "Reduction in tax expenditures" which means a tax hike. Obama used both of these gems in his speech this after noon. After a lot of typical Obamaspeak, it seems that his plan to balance the federal budget will rely upon "tax expenditure reductions".

$6 billion of the $38 billion in cuts is smoke&mirrors

Apparently sharp eyed budget cutters found $6 billion unspent in an account for the census bureau. They reclaimed that and called it a "cut".

So, where do the Republicans go from here?

Next big challenge is the debt ceiling. Current law limits the government's borrowing authority to $14.something trillion. When we hit that ceiling, sometime in a few weeks, we have a problem. No more borrowing, which means the government revenue takes a 40% hit. Note, it doesn't mean we default, it means a 40% reduction in the money Uncle has to spend. That's a lot. In theory such a spending reduction could be done, but the pain would be intense.
The house republicans have enough votes to prevent raising the debt ceiling. If John Boehner were to call out his troops, he has the votes to stop it.
Question, what should the Republicans demand as a quid pro quo for raising the debt ceiling?
They could go for a federal balanced budget constitutional amendment. That would make a lot of conservatives happy, but I doubt it would do much good. Too many lawyers to invent ways of spending money but calling something else. Plus there would have to be an escape clause for real emergencies. And pretty soon everything would be a real emergency.
They could demand legislation to end farm subsidies, road building subsidies, ethanol subsidies, every kind of subsidy under the sun.
They could demand a resumption of oil exploration, and permits to drill in the "Arctic National Wildlife Refuge" (ANWR for short).
They could demand curbing EPA.
They could try and pass Ryan's plan for Medicare, replacing the current cost-plus and cost-no-object system with a system of private insurance plus subsidies for the sicker and more needy elderly.
They could demand interstate sale of health insurance, and the right to import medicine from any reasonable first world country.
They could demand repeal of Obamacare, but that probably won't fly, Obama would rather take a 40% revenue hit than give up his baby.
We shall see what happens next.

$38 billion is all fake cuts according to Fox News

This evening's Fox news with Judge Nepolitano says that the $38 million in cuts are all fake cuts, reductions from Obama's proposals. In actual fact, the continuing resolution for this fiscal year will spend more money that was spent last fiscal year. Which is unfortunate, but better than nothing. And the democrats cannot cry "extreme" when federal spending is still going up.

Am I getting too old to do train shows?

Arrgh. Drove down to a train show in West Lebanon. Going up thru Sugar hill I had one deer dash in front of the car. Ten miles further on, nearly to Lebanon another one. I had the camera in the car, but both deer were too fast for me. Didn't get a pix of either.
Part of me wondered why deer always run in front of cars, seems anti survival, you'd think the traffic would have culled out the "run-in-front-of-cars" gene by now. The other part of me sneered that you don't see the deer that run behind the car.
Got to the show just as it opened. They held this one in the Fireside Inn and Suites, in the ballroom. Dark as a cave, even with all the lights on. So there I am trying to look at teeny tiny models, read faded labels on old boxes, and decide what is worth spending money on. Arrgh. Couldn't see a damn thing by the dim artistic lighting.
What with the death of hobby shops up here, the train show is the only place left to get stuff, short of internet ordering with a $10 shipping charge on each order. The hobby is changing, prices are rising. The low end junker cars used to be a buck, now they are five. The new ready-to-run cars used to be $5, now it's $15. Low end maker Athearn was nowhere to be seen, High end maker Atlas was all over the place. Fortunately this is all discretionary spending.
Did some exploring on Airport Road, it's a junk strip loaded with retailers. Found Encore, a used&remainders book store which was good for a hour's browsing.
All and all, a successful Sunday.