Posted on 11/27/2017 7:23:49 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
"The priority is spending," the energetic and newly minted congressman, sporting an American flag pin on his dark suit jacket, told the C-SPAN host, soon adding, "the size of the government is really what it comes down to."
The year was 2010, and the congressman-elect was Mick Mulvaney, then a 43-year-old restaurateur and developer who rode the tea party wave during President Obama's first term to defeat 14-term incumbent Democrat John Spratt and be the first Republican to represent South Carolina's 5th Congressional District since 1883.
Fast forward to 2017. The national debt has surpassed $20 trillion. The country's budget has seen nothing but deficits for the last two decades. Spending has only gone up, even under a GOP-run Congress. And arguably, Republicans — who control the White House, Senate, and House — don't seem terribly concerned.
Mulvaney, now the director of the Office of Management and Budget after six years of establishing a reputation as a fiscal hawk in Congress, now says that "we need new deficits." The reason he's saying that is that the tax plan, which is a top priority for the president and Republicans in Congress would likely add about $1.5 trillion to the national debt over a decade.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Sure looks that way when viewed in totality.
Fiscal conservatism has been dead a long time. Our finances are a train headed for a cliff and the response of congress has been to speed up the train rather than stop it.
Of course it’s dead. Any candidate for elected office proposing it will lose the election. The problem is not the swamp. The problem is the voters.
All those guys are trying to do it keep the charade going on a month by month basis - continuing to kick the can further down the road, as it gets heavier and heavier with each kick.
We would need good old fashioned austerity to get out of this mess. It ain’t happening. It is not going to happen - voluntarily. It will be forced on us like a volcano or meteor hit.
This is metaphore and, I believe, describing our western civilization in general and possibly the US specifically. I moved to central KY in the vein of verse 4.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+18&version=NKJV
YMMV
The US Federal Budget is on autopilot - approx. 2/3 of the budget are automatic items - entitlements and interest on the debt. And of that remaining “discretionary” spending, 60% of that is Defense.
its paid for with massive debt, in our completely unbacked, fiat currency, manipulated by the Federal Reserve.
Any so-called fix would mean a total restructuring of our financial system, and of society. Nobody in the USA has the stomach for that, and no politician will propose it - so it will run until it collapses.
I am surprised how quickly the fiscal conservatives disappeared once they were handed the power of the purse.
Yes.
I am old and have no kids so I officially give up. The debt won’t affect me in my lifetime and the kids today are so out of touch they won’t know what hits them until it hits them.
By the time the Millennials are nearing retirement 99% of the budget will be debt service. The other 99% will be payroll for people to move bits from bucket A to bucket B.
>
If Congress cannot eliminate funding Planned Parenthood, NPR, ethanol subsidies, and other “easy” cuts ... our grandchildren are doomed. Possibly our children.
>
$120T+ in unfunded liabilities (SS/MediXYZ and other Ponzi schemes), least alone a $20T+ debt and ~$2T deficit...what gave it away??
You’re GENERATIONS off...*WE’RE* the (great)(grand)children.
I am surprised how quickly the fiscal conservatives disappeared once they were handed the power of the purse.
Most of them, like liberals, when given the chance of spending other people’s money, find the experience all to rewarding.
The Federal government has not operated under a budget for more than a decade. It has been a series of “spending resolutions” that make the government nothing but a giant unaccountable spending machine. I believe that is what the Deep State has been wanting all along.
But Chinese historians will look back at this and write “what were they thinking?”
What is dead is the complete idiocy which asserted that it was actually possible to be conservative fiscally without being conservative militarily and conservative on border enforcement.
The idiots who are trying to revive that have to be mocked and driven back to the leftism that they really support.
I’m afraid the 2009 bailout of the banking system was a game changer.
If you owe the bank $50,000 the bank owns you. If you owe it $500 million, you own the bank.
The repercussions of letting the banks fail in ‘09 were so dire the powers that be determined to do ANYTHING rather than let it happen.
And it will be the same if the US Government were ever on the verge of failing. Nobody, here or around the globe, will allow that to happen for the same reason.
Congress is behaving as if they know this is the case.
Not only Fiscal Conservatism Dead, but Conservatism itself as any kid of Ideology is Dead and has been dead. Dr. Samuel Francis wrote several essays on that very point almost 30 years ago.
One of the farces of Conservatism has been that of Limited Government, that went out the window in November of 1932.
The Big Lie has always been that Republicans have been for small Limited Government when they have in fact always advocated Big Central Government since the 1860’s, they just wanted it to benefit Big Business.
Fiscal restraint will cost you your House or Senate seat. That’s a pathetic indictment of the perpetual state of dependency in which we exist.
I don't think most Congressmen are smart enough, or think long-term enough to see this. But you are 100% correct - cheap, printed money and massive debt, to support both consumers and government, with a healthy skim by Wall Street, is the game played by our elites and leaders.
Our progressive nanny-state and businesses around it are truly "Too Big To Fail" The only option is the steady debasement of the currency.
Pretty much, yeah.
Republicans only care about the deficit when a Democrat is in the White House. Democrats only care about the deficit when a Republican is in the white house. They're funny that way.
From the June chuck n Nancy deal to spend more middle class earnings tax spending plan to buy votes.. I would say it’s not dead to the working class, but to the ruling class and the getting paid class.. nope.
CBS is incapable of reviewing what took place after other tax cuts, and learning from it.
The above is pure nonsense.
Yup. And the American Taxpayer gets it. ...No fiscal austerity on my watch either.
What’s 1.5 trillion anyway?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.