Obama's Budget Deficit: This cannot stand.

The annual budget of the United States has been about $2.9 trillion dollars (that's the 2008 numbers I could find).

According to the Treasury department, our payments on the interest every fiscal year has never been larger than $400 billion dollars (usually down towards $300 billion), until 2006 with Bush's Medicare drug benefit and the increased costs of the Afghanistan campaign.

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/ir/ir_expense.htm

2007 saw us have $429 billion in deficit-related interest spending.
2008 saw us have $451 billion.
2009 saw us have $383 billion.

So far, in FY 2010, we have paid $164 billion in 4 months (October 2009 to Jan 2010).  Simply multiplying by 3, we get $492 billion.  However, that is too naive a final number.

Obama is proposing a $3.8 trillion dollar budget.  That's an additional $900 billion of debt over the $2.9 trillion dollar budget that we didn't have in 2008.

That's $900 billion on the national debt, not the deficit.  The interest payment on that, at perhaps 3%, is $27 billion dollars.

That's more than the entire budget of NASA, in debt obligation.  NASA has less than $20 billion for its operating budget.

So, if Obama gets his budget, or even close to it, we will breach the $500 billion debt obligation threshold in our budget.

That makes the deficit payments (and really just the INTEREST payments on the deficit) a larger line item on the annual budget than the Department of Defense.  The DoD operates with $481 billion dollars.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/rewrite/budget/fy2008/defense.html

This cannot stand.  The center will not hold.

The interest component of our nation's annual budget will be the second largest item on our budget.

With DoD at $500 billion, the interest at $500 billion and Social Security at $650 billion (http://www.socialsecurity.gov/budget/FactCard2009.pdf), that's $1.65 trillion out of $2.9 trillion of the Bush underfunded budget.  When we start to consider what it means to borrow $500 billion to $1 trillion dollars a year and adding that to our existing interest payments as a component of the budget, it quickly becomes apparent that this cannot stand.

Adding insult to injury is the well documented tradition in Washington to fund projects and NEVER de-fund them.  If the budget for one year is $3.9 trillion, then it will be at least $3.9 trillion forever more.  That's a trillion of borrowing every year.  And an additional $30 billion of interest (at 3%) tacked onto last year's interest bill.  And, whatever capital payment might be in place against the actual working debt.

Fight, people.  Take this up with Congress, with the President.  With your governor and state legislature.  Beware any deficits in any budgets.  We are on such a financial precipice that our country is in jeopardy.  Drunk-spending Washington will not stop.

Success

Well, sort of. 

All my rounds fed successfully, without any cleaning of the firearm between stages.  No failures except for one I caused by myself:  I thought I fully inserted a mag and it ran for 7 out of 8 rounds, but it turns out it didn't secure itself on the mag catch.  I guess it's a testament to Wilson 47D magazines if they can feed my gun without being fully seated.

124.28, despite about 10 seconds of fussing with the one mag problem.

Next week, the 9mm's.  Starting with the XD9 since I have a decent kydex holster for it.  Need to get one for the CZ-75, still.

Progressing at Steel

Last week I improved to 121.24 seconds, and ran flawless for 3 out of 4 stages as far as reliability was concerned.  I was all set to break 100 seconds, actually.

Then I shot the last stage and came across some rounds that turned out to be too large in crimp diameter, measuring 0.474" across at the mouth.  Grr.  Argh.

So... this week I went through 200 rounds that I made on my Dillon Square Deal B, and hand-chambered them in my Colt Government 1991 barrel (removed the barrel from the slide to do this quickly and easily).  Of those 200 rounds, 182 seem to chamber reliably.

I have those 182 rounds set aside.  I will run them in my 5 known good magazines (3 wilsons and 2 ACT's).  In theory, I should run a flawless night, and hopefully clear 100 seconds tonight.

In theory.  :-)

I also cleaned the lube-sludge that oozes out when loading .45 with lead bullets, so the chamber should stay cleaner longer.  I'll also run the bore snake through it once between the 2nd and 3rd stages, just as a preventative maintenance issue.

More Steel

Well, I'm finally shooting halfway decently at the steel matches.

Last time I went, I ran the course in 142.32, right-smack in the middle of the pack of D-rank shooters.  All the Grand Master shooters are still running the same courses in about 45 seconds with the tricked out race guns in the space-man holsters.

I had one gear issue that appears to be caused by my lead roundnose reloads.  I wasn't flaring the case quite enough and I was getting wax/lead residue on the case mouth, affecting headspace.  I changed my press to flare the case a bit more, and I went out and tested the results this last weekend.  The cartridges look cleaner and function just fine.

So, that should save me about 10 seconds hopefully.  Put me closer to the top of D-class if my reloads work properly tonight with no malfunctions.

Also got a really good pointer last time:  To build speed, I need to assume that my shot is good and bring the gun down out of recoil and onto the next target immediately.  Right now, I am bringing it down out of recoil and preserving sight picture onto the previous target, like I do with rifle shooting.  I'll try that tonight.

So tonight will be my Colt 1991 government pistol.

Steel guns: Updated

So, I've updated the gear a bit.

1911 platform:  I have 2 Wilson and 2 ACT 8rd magazines, and I'm going to test both of them to see which performs best in both my 1911's.  Ordered a quad mag carrier from Blade-Tech, should arrive this week or next.  Taking forever to get here.  Once a mag platform is chosen, I'll pick up half a dozen of that type.  Personally, I'm rooting for the ACT magazines.  They're half the price of the Wilsons.  The 1991 has the Ed Brown safety installed.  I did it myself and it works great.  Very educational experience.  Still need to get off my duff and begin experimenting with making 1911 grips.  I need some wood grips, cut to accomodate the ambi safety notch on the right side.

.44 Redhawk:  Got the correct moonclips from TK Custom, but realized after my first shoot that I only have 60 rounds staged up in my 10 moonclips.  I probably should have about 150 staged up in my range bag, ready to go.  I don't want to moon/demoon between stages.  Gonna have to order another 20 moonclips.

Smith K-frame:  Got the gun, been out shooting it, really like it.  Ordered a kydex holster from Blade-Tech for it, should arrive with the quad mag carrier.  Have 3 HKS-10 speedloaders as well as an Uncle Mike's dual speedloader carrier, but I probably need at least 2 more, probably 3 more.  Gonna familiarize more with this gun and let the Redhawk gather dust in the safe until I'm a deadeye with DA .38 shooting and can rapidly operate the speedloaders.

CZ-75:  Up to 5 magazines how, and also ordered a dual mag carrier from Blade-Tech along with the other stuff.  However:  I only have my IWB holster for this gun.  Need a decent OWB holster.  I'll keep working the 1911 and K-frame until then.

And... I drank the blue kool-aid.  Got a Dillon Square Deal B.  I still refuse to run a progressive for rifle rounds, but if I'm gonna shoot 100+ rounds a week from handgun, then I can't replenish that supply on a single stage.  Ain't gonna happen.  I don't have the time at 50-75 rounds per hour.  Once all my gear is "tested" and approved functional, I intend to predominantly run the CZ-75 since 9mm cast bullets are by far cheaper than anything else I shoot, followed by .38 boolits.  I've got SDB dies for .45acp, 9mm and .38/.357.

So, all my half-completed platforms are getting closer to being complete.

1st Shooting Match - "Tuesday Night Steel"

I went to Tuesday Night Steel at the Usery Pass shooting range.  Wow, was that awesome.  There are some amazingly talented shooters there.  I'm going to learn a LOT from these guys.

I'm having gear-drama in regards to my 3 "best" guns for pistol competitions, though.

First up, a CZ-75.  This 9mm handgun is great and I shoot well with it, but I only have 3 magazines and 2 separate single magazine pouches.  I need a couple more mags and more mag carriers.  So I couldn't run it for my first time out.  That's okay... I wasn't planning to anyways.  Fully equipping this gun can wait until next spring.

I intended to run my custom 4" .44 Redhawk, cut for moonclips.  Only problem was the moonclips that came in the mail this week were cut incorrectly for a Ruger extractor star.  TK Custom is sending me the right clips... but it wasn't in time for this week.  I also didn't have a holster really suitable to this type of competition.  I don't go for "race" holsters as a rule, but my leather holster for this gun is too high and tight and the nylon one I have has a retention strap that would slow me down quite a bit.  I'm waiting for a custom kydex one to be finished, which I should be able to pick up tomorrow.

My other gun I was considering running is a Colt 1991 full sized .45.  But, it has a standard right handed safety and I'm one of those gawd-awful southpaws.  I've been trying to get an ambidextrous safety from Midway with no success.  They've sent me two Colt 1911 ambidextrous extended thumb safeties so far...at least the wrapper says so.  The part in the bag is a right side only safety.  So, no full sized Colt.  Finally changed the order to an Ed Brown safety and we'll see if that gets me the right type of part.  I think Midway has an inventory bug in regards to the Colt ambi safety.

That really only left my lightweight Colt Commander to run.  It's a nice and accurate gun, but competitions are easier to be competitive if your gun is heavier and comes down from recoil quickly.  I sorted through my magazines and found I had six that I considered reliable enough:  2 factory Colt 8rd, 2 ACT 8rd, and 2 ACT 7rd magazines.

The course of fire required 96 hits over 4 different bays.  The fastest guys were in the 46 second range!  I don't know what their hit rate was, but you can never miss fast enough to win... so I guess it's pretty high.  I ran the course and had malfunction drama from my Colt magazines (but the ACT's all ran fine).  Failure to lock the slide back mostly, but also one stovepipe and one failure to strip a round from the mag at all.  I don't know exactly what my round count was that I shot... somewhere around 125.

So:  I geared up with a Fobus paddle holster for my Commander, a Fobus 2-mag carrier, and pockets full of extra mags.  Ran each of the four courses and ended up with a total time of 208.46.  I'm pretty happy with that, considering everything.

I have more gear on the way to better-equip myself for this type of competition without going overboard.... the proper ambi safety for the full sized 1911, extra mag carriers, things like that.  Some replacement springs for the Colt malfunctioning magazines.  Probably next year I'll replace all my magazines in one batch for matching ACT's with bumper pads.

J.D. Hayworth

Let me preface this with the declaration that I like most of JD's political stance...

But I can't stand his voice or his style of radio programming.

Biggest gripes: 

#1 - Open line Friday.  Thank God he finally got rid of this.  "Open lines" is the laziest form of talk radio possible.  His particular version of it encouraged telephone "actors" to call up with skits and corny voices, and they even became regulars.  Devolved into a not-funny parody of 1940's era Pappy O'Daniel radio.

#2 - Weenie of the Week.  His theme song for this sucks and makes me turn the volume down on the radio.  His attempt at clean language insults isn't even childish... it's just lame.  JD:  Either get as dirty as the FCC will allow you, or attack from the heights of intelligence rather than from the mediocrity of this skit.

JD, please put McCain out of the Senate and get off of the air waves.