monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

".....by definition, them Trump-haters aint "truly loving people."

Not really or they wouldn't be going into default.

Requirements that states balance their budgets are often said to be a major difference between state and federal budgeting. State officials certainly take an obligation to balance the budget seriously, and in the debate over a federal balanced budget in the early- and mid-1990s, much of the discussion centered on the states' with balanced budgets. This article is concerned with the nature, definition and enforcement of state balanced-budget requirements.

Nature of state balanced-budget requirements All the states except Vermont have a legal requirement of a balanced budget. Some are constitutional, some are statutory, and some have been derived by judicial decision from constitutional provisions about state indebtedness that do not, on their face, call for a balanced budget. The General Accounting Office has commented that "some balanced budget requirements are based on interpretations of state constitutions and statutes rather than on an explicit statement that the state must have a balanced budget."

The requirements vary in stringency from state to state. In some states the requirement is that the introduced budget be balanced, or that the enacted budget be balanced. In other states policymakers are required to ensure that expenditures in a fiscal year stay within the cash available for that fiscal year. Other states may carry unavoidable deficits into the next fiscal year for resolution.

There are three general kinds of state balanced budget requirements:

1. The governor's proposed budget must be balanced (43 states and Puerto Rico).
2. The budget the legislature passes must be balanced (39 states and Puerto Rico).
3. The budget must be balanced at the end of a fiscal year or biennium, so that no deficit can be carried forward (37 states and Puerto Rico).

In each case, it is practically impossible for revenues and expenditures to get out of balance, since expenditures are controlled by available funds.

(...)

Unlike the federal government, states are not able to issue debt routinely. Issues of general obligation debt require at least the approval of the legislature and in many states, voter approval. The issue of revenue bonds requires legislation to create an agency to issue bonds and the creation of a revenue stream to repay the debt. These practices mean that the issuance of debt is fully in the public view. It is extremely rare for a state government to borrow long-term funds to cover operating expenses, although. Louisiana did in 1988 and Connecticut did in 1991. There do not appear to be any other examples of this practice from recent years.

A legislature and governor can jointly revise a budget at any time. But most legislatures are not in session throughout the year, and some legislatures meet only for a few months every other year. Requiring legislative consent for every change in a budget would impose delays or the costs of special sessions. Therefore, many state constitutions allow governors or special commissions to revise budgets after they have been enacted to bring expenditures into line with revenues

Re: Finn dAbuzz (Post 6564133)
Did you know that George W. Bush and Michelle Obama are friends? (I think it's neat.)

She's full of ****.

She doesn't have 1/100th the grace of W

The House Intelligence Committee on Monday released the full transcript of the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page's testimony before the panel last week, portions of which support details in an explosive collection of memos outlining alleged collusion between the campaign and Moscow before the 2016 US election.

Page revealed during his testimony that he met with members of Russia's presidential administration and the head of investor relations at the Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft during his trip to Moscow in July 2016.

He also congratulated members of the Trump campaign's foreign-policy team on July 14 for their "excellent work" on the "Ukraine amendment" — a reference to the Trump campaign's decision to "intervene," a representative previously told Business Insider, to water down a proposed amendment to the GOP's Ukraine platform.

Tennesseans will be allowed to bring their guns to the new home of the legislature but must leave any hand-held signs behind, according to a recently implemented policy.

The policy, which Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, and House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, approved Dec. 14, expressly prohibits "hand-carried signs and signs on hand sticks" because they "represent a serious safety hazard."

Michael Morell, who ran the CIA, and Michael Rogers, former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post that Russia is still busy using its social media tools to create doubt across the U.S. about Mueller’s integrity.

“There is a perception among the media and general public that Russia ended its social media operations following last year’s election and that we need worry only about future elections,” the pair wrote. “But that perception is wrong. Russia’s information operations in the United States continued after the election, and they continue to this day.”

During one week in early December, for example, roughly 20 percent of the activity from accounts tied to Russian intelligence for propaganda was focused on undermining faith in Mueller’s investigation into potential collusion between Russia and the successful campaign of Donald Trump, according to research by The Alliance for Securing Democracy.

It is useful to know that you can’t believe a thing Breitbart says, because it’s willing to publish fake news that serves its perceived interests. I mean, you knew this anyway, but now you’ve had it confirmed by the editor-in-chief.

No surprise here:

Editor Admits Breitbart Publishes Fake News