A few days ago, President Obama called on Congress for a much bolder plan to reduce the deficit. He asked for double the amount of reduction ($4 trillion dollars) that is currently being discussed. This was in line with the Bowles-Simpson plan from last December. The GOP response?
Nope.
They only want $2 trillion in reduction.
I'm trying very hard to find the logic in what they are doing but I can't. In all honesty, I feel for John Boehner He's a good guy but he simply doesn't have the votes because his party has been hijacked by true believers. Like the socialists who believe in their utopia, the Tea Partiers have their own unicorn fart land and they are not budging from attempting to realize their warped dream. The word "compromise" isn't in their fucking vocabulary. Part of me thinks they would love it if the government defaulted on its loans so then it could be destroyed and everything could then be privatized. They may yet get to realize their dream.
Rick Ungar breaks this down quite nicely over at Forbes.
What Boehner likely understands – better than those who he is supposed to be leading – is that the GOP is permitting the fundamental change, long at the heart of the conservative cause, to vanish into thin air and that it is happening in the name of protecting corporate subsidies that are the very antitheses of a free market economy – another of the inviolate tenets of conservative policy.
I've been saying that for the last couple of weeks. At least Ungar has an explanation to my confusion.
I don’t know about you, but I can only think of one other explanation – fealty to the wealthy corporations and wealthy individuals who keep your Republican leadership rolling in the campaign cash so they can remain in their powerful jobs.
I fear we are witnessing one of the most perverse and dangerous games our leaders have ever embarked upon. I’m stunned by the sheer audacity of these elected officials so ready to play chicken with the financial lives of so many simply to benefit a very few.
And yet people keep supporting them. As Maher said the other day, I get the 1 percent that support the GOP. What I don't get is the other 99 percent. No doubt, this is one the greatest achievements in propaganda in the history of the world. A very small (and wealthy) group of people have convinced a very large group of people that anyone who makes up the the entire left half of the political spectrum (as well as the 25 percent to the right of center because, let's face it, they're RINO pussies) are actively working to destroy our country when in reality the complete opposite is true.
The GOP has a chance here at very serious entitlement reform but they are letting in slip through their fingers. Even Krugman admits that Obama is out GOPing the GOP. So far the markets are acting like the debt ceiling will be raised and there will be a deal. I guess I'm not so sure.
14 comments:
He asked for double the amount of reduction ($4 trillion dollars) that is currently being discussed.
He was also positively, god-damned the consequences, ADAMANT that the ONLY WAY IN HELL that he would accept that reduction in spending was if it was accompanied by a $1 Trillion TAX HIKE!!
Remember, this is the same guy who said this in an interview at MSNBC in 2009:
…the last thing you want to do is to raise taxes in the middle of a recession because that would just suck up — take more demand out of the economy and put businesses in a further hole.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/07/barack-obama-the-last-thing-we-want-to-do-is-raise-taxes-during-a-recession-2009-video/
Once again, you show how absolutely full of **it you are. No mention of his DEMAND to raise taxes. Instead, you just pretend that Obama is the one who wants to cut spending (he doesn't) and the Republicans hate spending cuts. (Not to mention that almost all the "spending cuts" are backloaded into the last 2 years of a "10 year" budget, which gets reargued every year anyway.)
Once again, I'm beyond flabbergasted and disgusted at your over-the-top denial of reality and outright deception. Yet again you've surprised me with your ability to make yourself look like even more of a fool than I thought possible.
Once again, half the story.
The dumb half to boot...
Nice projection in every post. I mean, you can't get much worse than democrat/leftist policies and you still have half the country voting for failure. Such a sad legacy of American civics education - you included.
A tax hike or the end of subsidies? None of these comments offers specifics. Until you people get serious about the revenue side of this, your plans for ending the deficit are "half the story."
Not actual spending cuts, either. Just a promise that if you raise the debt ceiling, "Oh sure we'll cut spending next, absolutely we will, pinkie swear!"
Same thing they told Reagan... and Bush in 1990...
Like I said a couple weeks ago, make the cuts first then we can talk about giving them more money. Otherwise we're doing nothing more than handing a teenager our Amex card.
For the math challenged and dense as a brick leftys here:
Mr. Obama called for Congress to cut deficits by $4 trillion over 10 years.
100 billion per year in new taxes
200 billion per year in spending cuts
100 billion per year reduction in interest (fantasy projections)
So every year we have 400 billion potential in deficit reduction.
Now, since the projections are running at 1.2 - 1.5 Trillion in deficits yearly thanks to OVERSPENDING. How exactly does this remedy the problem?
You can raise the debt ceiling, you can confiscate everything from everyone - you can play this stupid 'it's a revenue problem' meme till your head explodes. It is spectacularly and blindingly obvious that spending is way out of control. Even getting record revenue from Clinton years during the bubble shows that you wouldn't touch the deficit.
The President's plan is not bold, moron. It is not responsible. It is a joke. Even the Republican plan isn't addressing the problem.
Doesn't it bother you that 1/5 of our national income is from the Government? According to The New York Times, the U.S. government spent approximately $2.3 trillion alone on government benefits last year. Wait, isn't that our entire revenue from taxes last year? oh, yeah, that welfare state is working out just grand.
For people that want real change, a solution needs to address the problem, not some platitudes the current pols are selling which has no real effect.
Too late to change it.
Greece first, China last.
Representative democracy fails yet again.
The sad part is - it could have worked.
Otherwise we're doing nothing more than handing a teenager our Amex card
Actually, we have teenagers running Amex and that's the problem. But somehow it's all the fault of the government and the "job creators" who caused this mess get a pass. Sheesh...
I thought we were talking about government spending Mark?
I thought we were denigrating those who voluntarily choose to place a cock in their mouths?
How anyone can be pro-abortion and anti cock-sucking makes no sense to me.
Actually, we have teenagers running Amex and that's the problem. But somehow it's all the fault of the government and the "job creators" who caused this mess get a pass.
Right now, today, 40 cents of every dollar the government spends has to be borrowed. Obama and the Democrats refuse to reduce spending even by merely as much as they increase the debt, that is, the amount they add to that 40 cents of every dollar. And that's the fault of someone other than the government how, exactly?
Not to argue your net point Anon, but I would put it a different way.
US Government income is X.
US spending is X + 40%.
The Tea Party proposal you want would reduce spending to X. Minus 40%! (Let's not nitpick the percentages please)
You want to cut government spending on firefighters and food stamps by 40%?
The USA couldn't stop borrowing money right now if it wanted to, without VERY painful withdrawal symptoms.
Three days after the food stamp check doesn't come, Detroit burns. LA burns. What's your neighborhood look like? Better hope all your neighbors have a job if the unemployment checks stop coming.
Both parties are bluffing. The can has been kicked into a cul-de-sac, not down the road.
Stop borrowing = societal breakdown now.
Keep borrowing = societal breakdown someday.
Do the math kids. It wasn't fun in H.S., but some smart people consider it important.
Full Disclosure: If zombies are chasing us, I will trip you.
Quite true.
And of all the "plans" and spin that have been offered, only one even approaches saying that if you're going to raise the borrowing to 41 cents, you have to cut the spending by 1 cent. That's Paul Ryan's plan. You know, the one Democrats are calling draconian.
Harry Reid and Barack Obama, on the other hand, consider any spending slowdown at all to be a concession. His idea of a "centrist" approach is to increase spending by over 10% in a single year, and then offer to freeze it at the new, increased level. His "concessions" are to pinkie swear to cut bits off over the next 10 years from that already inflated figure.
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