Budget fixes, not for publication on NPR, Coaching fixes, Afghanitan and Israeli fixes

Notes 73

Wall Streeter tells us how to fix U.S. budget problems. Cut entitlements. The problem started with Reagan cutting taxes.

"No Way Out" of Debt Trap, Gross Says: U.S. Living Standards Doomed to Fall
Posted Mar 08, 2011 09:00am EST by Stacy Curtin

Debt, debt and more mounting debt is plaguing countries around the globe.
In this U.S., states across the country face a collective $125 billion shortfall for fiscal 2012, while Congress is facing a budget gap nearly 10 times that size.
PIMCO founder Bill Gross -- one of the world's largest mutual funds managers, who focuses mostly on bonds -- has previously said that if the United States were a corporation, no one in their right mind would lend us money. For the last decade, we’ve been “relying on the kindness of strangers” to help cover our debts, he tells Aaron Task in the accompanying clip.
By “strangers” he is referring to our foreign counterparts, like China for example. Basically, for years Americans have spent their hard-earned dollars on less-expensive Chinese made goods. With great gratitude, China turned around and used all those dollars to buy up U.S. Treasuries and other dollar-denominated assets.
But now after years of reckless spending, America’s debt level is nearing a breaking point and can no longer rely on foreign capital as a last resort.
The budget crisis situation unfolding - at the state and federal government level - does not bode well for working men and women in this country. There are really only two choices, says Gross. And, neither favors your pocketbook:
Option #1 – Keep spending and do nothing
Option #2 – Balance our budgets by cutting entitlements

WHAT ABOUT RAISING TAXES
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The things you can day off mic that you can’t say on

NPR ‘appalled’ by former exec’s comments
By Michael Calderone
Former NPR executive Ron Schiller slams Republicans and the tea party movement and suggests that NPR would be better off without any federal funding in a hidden-camera video released Tuesday by conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe.
In the video, Schiller said that the current Republican Party has been "hijacked" by a group that's "not just Islamophobic, but really xenophobic" and suggests the tea party movement is comprised of some "seriously racist, racist people."
"We are appalled by the comments made by Ron Schiller in the video, which are contrary to what NPR stands for," said NPR spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm in a statement. "Mr. Schiller announced last week that he is leaving NPR for another job."

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Ethical values and value of football not an issue or even a question of embarrassment at major institutions of higher learning

Ohio State suspends Tressel two games
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)
Ohio State suspended football coach Jim Tressel for two games and fined him $250,000 on Tuesday for violating NCAA rules by failing to notify the school about information he received involving two players and questionable activities involving the sale of memorabilia.
Tressel also will receive a public reprimand and must make a public apology. The NCAA is investigating and could reject the self-imposed penalties and impose additional sanctions.
''Wherever we end up, Jim Tressel is our football coach,'' Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said. ''He is our coach, and we trust him implicitly.''
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The truth is we are like every other would be conqueror of Afghanistan. And the sooner we cut our losses and come home, the better for everybody. But pride goeth before the fall as President Johnson learned.

AP Interview: Petraeus says tough summer ahead
AP –
KABUL, Afghanistan – The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan says fighting this summer may be worse than last year but some reduction in American forces is still possible in July.
Gen. David Petraeus tells The Associated Press that he plans to present President Barack Obama with varying levels of troop reductions that accommodate the president's July target for beginning troop withdrawals. He says the extra forces poured in by Obama have secured "modest momentum" in Afghanistan but continues to describe those gains as fragile.

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Israel finally shows its cards

Israeli PM: Military must remain in West Bank
By Daniel Estrin, Associated Press –
SARTABA, West Bank – Israel's prime minister declared Tuesday that his country must retain a strategic section of the West Bank under any future peace deal — a position unlikely to win Palestinians over to his reported plan to offer them a temporary state.
In a rare visit to the occupied territory, Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Israel's security depends on maintaining a military presence in the Jordan Valley — a strip of West Bank land along the border with Jordan. Without troops there, Israel fears militants could smuggle weapons into the West Bank.
"The Jordan Valley is Israel's line of defense," Netanyahu said. "There is no alternative. It will remain that way in any future situation and any future deal. The military must remain here along the Jordan border."