One of the subsections of Human Events is called RedState which offers a morning briefing that I subscribe to. One of today’s articles is titled Debt Limit Surrender. Here is the opening paragraph:
Members of the Tea Party and the conservative movement need to be prepared for some serious disappointment if news reports are correct. News reports have emerged indicating that “dollar for dollar” cuts to spending promised as part of a grand bargain to increase the debt ceiling may be pro-rated over 10, 20 or even 25 years. It is easy for politicians to promise future cuts to spending when many of these politicians cutting the deal will be long gone from Washington, DC.
Remember the budget cut battle? A deal was made to reduce spending by $66 billion. We found out afterwards that all but a few million was actually if futures with no real guaranties. Well that worked so good it seems our boys and girls in Washington are planning to do again.
News is leaking out tha a bipartisan group is working on a deal to raise the debt limit by $2.4 trillion in exchange for $2.4 trillion in spending cuts. That sounds pretty good, right? But not so fast. They are offering to make these cut over ten to twenty-five years. Here is why:
Politically this deal is very attractive for incumbents of both parties. A $2.4 trillion debt limit increase would negate the need for a further increase in the debt limit until after the next Congressional and Presidential election. This level of a debt limit increase would protect House and Senate incumbent Republicans and Democrats from any further politically difficult votes before they have to face the voters in November of 2012.
Furthermore, the deal may include cuts over a time period that will exceed the 10-year budget window of the Congressional Budget Office making these cuts unenforceable. If an agreement is reached on a $2.4 trillion increase in the debt limit for $2.4 trillion in cuts over 10, 20 or 25 years, politicians would get the double benefit of not having to vote on increasing debt over the next year and a half and they can claim they cut spending by $2.4 trillion. This deal may make for a good talking point for politicians of both parties, but it would turn out to be bad deal for the American people.
The author provides a math lesson to help us understand the significance of what this deal would mean:
Some simple math is in order to understand this potential “deal.” If the deal were to cut $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years, then the cuts would be $2.4 in Fiscal Years 2012-24 equaling $240 billion a year. If the deal were to cut $2.4 trillion over 20 years, then the cuts would be $2.4 trillion in Fiscal Years 2012-2034 equaling $120 billion a year in cuts. Any window longer than 20 years is laughable and would amount to an empty promise by politicians today. It will be difficult, if not impossible, for Congress to enforce these promised cuts on a future Congress.
The author does offer us some glimmer of hope. Not all Republicans are on board with this “bipartisan plan”:
What options would make the Tea Party movement and conservatives happy? Well there are many ideas on the table. The most promising idea is Cut, Cap, and Balance. The House Republican Study Committee has deployed a Cut, Cap, and Balance plan including three elements.
- Cut – We must make discretionary and mandatory spending reductions that would cut the deficit in half next year.
- Cap – We need statutory, enforceable caps to align federal spending with average revenues at 18% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with automatic spending reductions if the caps are breached.
- Balance – We must send to the states a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) with strong protections against federal tax increases and a Spending Limitation Amendment (SLA) that aligns spending with average revenues as described above.
Oops! Maybe I’m misunderstanding this plan but item 1 doesn’t exactly flip my switch. Cutting the “deficit” in half next year is a start ; but then what? You can cut the deficit in half every year till the end of time and you still have a deficit and have done nothing what so ever about reducing the debt.
This is a Red Alert folks. We must let our boys and girls know that we are not going to stand for any more games. THERE IS NO TIME FOR GAMES!!!
Well, that’s what I’m thinking. What are your thoughts?
loopyloo305
June 9, 2011
It is simply nuts that they would think that this is a good idea! Will reblog this one too, Jim!
Conservatives on Fire
June 9, 2011
Thanks for the re-post, Patricia. We need to spread the word fast.
loopyloo305
June 9, 2011
absolutely
bunkerville
June 9, 2011
I thought we had a win this past Novemeber. We had him on the ropes and let him up for air. Where are we to find the next leaders who will save us from our folly?
Conservatives on Fire
June 9, 2011
We are not going to find them among the among the Establishment politicians. That’s for sure. For that reason, my current short list is Palin, Cain, Pawlenty and West in no particular order. Palin and West are so far mot candidates.
Pat
June 9, 2011
The game that is played is called “power” not “do the right thing.” This really is a battle for the ages. I predict (confidently) that history will call the results of the election in 2012 either the moment when America’s decline was assured, or the moment when America rejected collectivism, reaffirmed its commitment to individual liberty and free market capitalism, and turned itself around.
Conservatives on Fire
June 9, 2011
I agree, Pat. this is the greatest challenge America has faced since the Civil War.
silverfiddle
June 9, 2011
Any republican lawmaker on board with this should be pitched overboard.
Conservatives on Fire
June 9, 2011
They haven’t learned a damn thing, Silver. Yes, there is a small handful that want to do what’s right; but the rest of them just want to maintain the status quo. We are fighting an up hill battle, my friend.
Matt
June 9, 2011
A Constitutional Amendment is the only way. They will ignore anything else. Hell, they’ll likely ignore a Constitutional Amendment as well.
Conservatives on Fire
June 9, 2011
We have to clean house, Matt. There is no other way.
Steve Dennis
June 9, 2011
A constitutional amendment wouldn’t mean anything because these people don’t give a damn about the constitution in the first place.
Steve Dennis
June 9, 2011
Thanks for the info Jim, this is disheartening to say the least. We elected these people to make the tough decisions and it looks like they are going to put re-election above doing what is right, and they are doing it using a gimmick which they think we won’t notice.
Conservatives on Fire
June 9, 2011
You know, Steve, if they came out and said; This is not the time to make sweeping cut s for this that and the other reason, I might still be mad but at least I would respect them for taking a stand. But to try to con us, that pisses me off!
John Scotus
June 9, 2011
Thanks for the post. The amount of cowardice and duplicity coming out of both parties in Congress is really astonishing.
Conservatives on Fire
June 9, 2011
I’ll tell you, John, I’m really getting tired of being played for a fool.
rjjrdq
June 10, 2011
The key is ignorance of the masses. If most Americans took the time to find out what has already been done and what is about to be done again, we would see a turnover in Washington not seen in history. Unfortunately, I don’t think there are enough Americans paying attention to stop them from doing the continuing resolution 2-step once again.
Conservatives on Fire
June 10, 2011
We are sitting on a time bomb, rjjrdq, and time is running out.
azleader
June 10, 2011
It would be damaging and wrong if Washington politician’s play the ‘ol budget cut shell game again, as described above.
Government has used up all the game play left in America’s wealth system. Government is hogging way to much of the GDP without producing enough in return.
The deficit is now the soft underbelly of America economically, not Social Security or Medicaid(at least for the next decade or so). Trying to turn a discussion of America’s fiscal survival into a discussion of social values is wrong.
The National Debt has risen so high and we’ve printed money out of thin air so much that America’s credit card rates are about to go up… and will if we do not take serious action with real, not fake, budget cuts.
We are in such bad shape, the economy so delicate and big government so much a part of the economy that in the short term it is probably just as damaging to cut spending to much, to fast as it is to do nothing at all.
Unfortunately, cutting the deficit in half in one year is probably more damaging than helpful. More incremental but significant and real cuts to each year’s budgets over the next decade softens the blow and allows the private sector economy to adjust as the size of big government is whittled down.
I believe that both cuts and caps mentioned above and, yes, modest tax increases on the wealthy where an excessively high 24% of all wealth is concentrated, will be necessary to bring our economy back from the brink and return us to sustainable growth.
But make no mistake. Government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
Real budget cuts as a percentage decrease in real dollars from the previous year’s budget is where the bulk of the fix needs to be made.
Conservatives on Fire
June 10, 2011
AZLeader _ I agree the increasing revenues will be necessary to solving our economic woes. I do not believe that taxing the rich will help. In fact I believe it would do more harm than good. the better way to increase revenues, IMO, would be to implement the plan put forward by Pawlenty to reduce corporate taxes to 15% and eliminate capital gains taxes. this would like result in substantial job growth and therefore more taxpayers and corporations would be paying 15% on a much bigger pie.
MK
June 11, 2011
It’s a trick these politicians have mastered but the rest of us haven’t really caught on to. Spending cuts years down the line is not the only thing they do, giving benefits now to be paid later is another.
I like the dollar-for-dollar angle, however instead of saying i’ll give you a dollar if you cut a dollar of spending, say first you cut the dollar of spending, then i give you a dollar.
Getting a politician to do the right thing is like trying to wrestle a well oiled pig to the ground.
Conservatives on Fire
June 11, 2011
The greater the spending, the bigger is the government. The bigger the government, the more power they have, They are addicted to it, MK.