MARCH MADNESS DEMOCRAT SPENDING CONGRESSIONAL WAYS AND MEANS OF TAXATION OF THE PEOPLE AND ITS CHILDREN

Sen. Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.) is using March Madness to publicize wasteful government spending, where taxpayers can crown the 2014 “Champion of Waste.”

Flake’s “Elite Eight of Waste” tournament starts on Thursday. The senator is asking individuals to vote on Facebook and Twitter on which item of government spending they find the most outrageous.

“The two-week tournament will pit eight examples of wasteful federal spending against one another, allowing social media users to vote to advance the more egregious item, until a Champion of Waste is crowned on Tuesday, April 7, 2014,” his office said.

“There’s not a Cinderella in this Big Dance, just a bunch of ugly stepsisters,” Flake said in a statement.

The first matchup on March 27 pits “O’Care Hawkers” against “Amtrak Free Riders.” Voters will choose between $130,000 given to the Baltimore Ravens to promote Obamacare, and Amtrak’s $20,600 worth of train tickets it gave away to “creative professionals.”

http://freebeacon.com/issues/senator-holds-elite-eight-of-waste/

BANK OF AMERICA SETTLES THE MORTGAGE CRISIS WITH A $9.5 BILLION SETTLEMENT–DROPPING THE BANK QUARTER PROFIT BY $3.7 BILLION–A DROP IN THE BUCKET

Bank of America to pay $9.5 bil. to settle claims

Bank of America has agreed to pay 9.5 billion dollars to settle claims for loss-making mortgage bonds.
The US Federal Housing Finance Agency sued Bank of America and 17 financial institutions in 2011 after the housing bubble burst. It said Bank of America and the other institutions failed to fully explain the risks of the subprime loan-related products they sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The agency regulates the 2 mortgage giants.
With the settlement, Bank of America's net profit for the January-March quarter will be reduced by about 3.7 billion dollars.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140327_22.html

THE RELIGION OF PEACE STRIKES AGAIN AS A BEARDED MAN DRIVING A PICK-UP TRUCK MOWES DOWN 12 PEOPLE WHILST SHOUTING “TAKFIR” IN ARABIC–A TERM USED BY MUSLIMS IN NORTHERN SYRIA

Smiling at the wheel of a pickup truck, a bearded young man looks into the camera and gives the go-ahead, in French, for the camera to record the next scene. What follows are scenes of brutality that has shocked France.

The pickup starts to move, dragging along at least half-a-dozen corpses through the fields of northern Syria amid cries of “takfir” – an Arabic term used by one Muslim to denounce another Muslim as an unbeliever.

The jihadists in the pickup belong to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) – one of the hardline Salafist groups that have edged out nationalist opposition fighters in the Syrian conflict against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The disturbing video was aired Thursday night in a documentary titled, "Le quotidien de jihadistes en Syrie" (The daily lives of jihadists in Syria) on the French BFM TV station and features the exploits of an ISIS brigade comprised of about 40 French and Belgian jihadists in Syria. The footage was filmed in February around the northern Syrian town of Azaz near the Turkish border and handed over to two French journalists by supporters of the nationalist Free Syrian Army (FSA).

http://www.france24.com/en/20140327-syria-french-jihadist-video-shocks-france/

AS GAS CONSUMPTION DRIES UP FROM HIGHER FUEL EFFICIENT AUTOMOBILES–THE TAX MAN COMETH FOR MORE TO TAKE FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SINCE THEY HAVE OUT SMART THE GOVERNMENT BY FUELING UP LESS OFTEN AT THE PUMP–INSTEAD CONGRESS WILL PENALIZE ONCE AGAIN THE PEOPLE–SINCE THE DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS NEVER KNOWS WHAT A BALANCE BUDGET MEANS THEY ONLY KNOW HOW TO RAISE MORE TAXES TO PAY FOR THEIR OUTRAGEOUS SPENDING

If not the gas tax, then what?

That’s the dilemma facing Congress as it seeks to plug a growing hole in transportation funding that state and local governments say is reaching crisis proportions.

While the gas tax has long been the bedrock of the transportation trust fund, the revenue is drying up as cars become more fuel-efficient and people spend less time on the roadways.

House Republicans have ruled out an increase in the tax, leaving lawmakers to search for an alternative method of funding.

But some of the ideas circulating in Washington, such as an expansion of toll roads, would likely be unpopular with the public, leaving lawmakers without an easy solution.

The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the Department of Transportation’s Highway Trust Fund will run out of money as early as August. The trust fund’s coffers traditionally have been filled by the 18.4 cents per gallon federal gas tax, but infrastructure expenses have outpaced receipts in recent years by as much as $20 billion annually.

With the shortfall looming this summer, some groups that lobby on transportation funding are pushing to get their proposals in front of lawmakers. 

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/201881-congress-reaches-fork-in-the-road-on-gas-tax