Federal Budget Fun and Games for Halloween: Ignoring the bloodcurdling $984 billion deficit

What is the funnest thing in America, after Halloween? You got it: the Federal Budget. And just in time for Halloween the Feds issued their report for the just completed FY 2019 with their Monthly Treasury Statement (MTS) for September 2019.

Since it was issued late on Friday the 25th you know that there was bad news that the Democrat Operatives with Bylines would want to hype up to the max. It was the Deficit: Up 26%! Soaring! And so on.

And yes! The deficit was a bloodcurdling $984 billion in FY 2019, just a tad under One Trillion Dollars. But did you know that this is $100 billion below the deficit estimate for 2019 in the FY 2020 budget issued last February?

Actually, I suspect a bit of skullduggery. Normally, the end-of-fiscal year MTS comes out around October 15, more or less two weeks after the end of the fiscal year. How come the delay, Donny? I suspect that the deficit actually came in above $1,000 billion and the White House demanded that it be adjusted downwards. Okay, but that can take a while. But I am shocked, shocked that a House committee has not yet been empaneled to investigate this impeachment-worthy Trump quid pro quo shenanigans.

You and I, we are serious people, and we know that the federal budget lives and dies by the two biggest government programs in human history, Social Security and Medicare. As serious citizens, genuinely concerned about our nation, let us look at the numbers, as provided by good old usgovernmentspending.com, whose traffic declined by 50 percent on April 2, 2019 when the woke women at Google Search decided, from their Safe Space, that my site was a dangerous den of toxic masculinity.

Let us start with Social Security. The total amount actually paid to chaps like me in FY 2019 was $1.044 trillion. But let’s break it down, and look at how today’s numbers compare with the budget. I have provided the estimates for FY 2019 in the FY 2015 budget, the FY2020 budget and the actuals reported in the MTS

Spending in billions	FY 2019 Estimate in FY15 budget	FY 2019 Estimate in FY20 budget	Actual FY 2019 From MTS
SoSec: OASI	$962.1 billion	$897.8 billion	$896.7 billion
SoSec: DI	$169.5 billion	$149.5 billion	$147.8 billion
Total SoSec	$1,131.1 billion	$1,047.0 billion	$1,044.2 billion

We are spending half a trillion dollars each year on Welfare.

Folks didn’t pay in to get it.

None the less, Social Security or Military outlays are the first to be mentioned when it comes to budget cuts.

Put a moratorium on pork. Slice Welfare in half, kicking folks off the program.

Get off the backs of retired people.

and if any politician purposes doing anything at all, the voters crucify them at the next election.

That is why this will not be “voluntarily” resolved.

This video never gets old and nails it in a very well done and comical way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlN28DoL5qA

“I’d like to raise my debt limit.”

As usual, this kind of thing misses the major point:

Tax cuts work!

Republicans and conservatives continue to fail to make the key argument.

Again and again and again tax cuts INCREASE revenue to the federal government.

They increased by 1% in 2018

Now they have increased by 4% in 2019

Corporate tax payments increased by 12% in 2019.

This fundamentally betrays one of the most important ideas combatting conservatism: tax cuts reduce revenue.

Spending is a nightmare and its fine to complain about but we need to be attacking the premises of the antiamericans.

The Constitution gives the power of the purse to Congress and specifically the House of Representatives. Every appropriations bill must originate in the House as must every revenue (tax) bill.

The president cannot spend a dime without Congress’s approval either through direct appropriation of funds or discretionary funds authorized by Congress. Congress can remove discretionary funds any time it wishes. In addition the Constitution makes no distinction between mandatory and discretionary spending. The concept of mandatory spending is false. There is not one spending item in the Federal budget Congress does not have the authority to end.

The president’s only powers with respect to the budget are:
- Executing the spending Congress authorizes for specific items or programs.
- Allocating discretionary funds per any parameter set by Congress.
- Signing or not signing spending bills sent to him/her by Congress. This includes the power of the veto, which Congress has the power to override.

The Constitution does not give the Judiciary branch any spending power. Therefore orders of Federal judges, or even Supreme Court justices, to allocate funds or spend them are unconstitutional and should be ignored by the Executive and Judiciary branches.

Most of the blame for the size of the current deficit, and the accumulated national debt, should be assigned to Congress for authorizing more spending than revenue collected. The president shares some of the blame for his failure to veto spending bills.

Note however that during the Republican Speakerships of Dennis Hastert, John Boehner, and Paul Ryan spending was as out of control as it currently is under the Speakership of Nancy Pelosi. Both parties own the deficit.

>
Yep and if any politician purposes doing anything at all, the voters crucify them at the next election.
>

To be fair, it’s not like the (R)N(C) actually DOES *any* teaching on the subject (what?! & actually begin the fall of the house of cards!?)

- THE def. of a Ponzi scheme
- It’s BEEN broke to the tune of $150T+ (labelled ‘unfunded liabilities’)
- Nothing ‘paid’ into it, you’re TAXED
- You die early == buh-bye (it’s not “yours”)
- RoR is ~1% or less (IIRC)
- ZERO Const. authority

Search by Unit Of Government – 45 Million Public Employee Salary And Pension Records Across The USA
https://www.openthebooks.com/

Making A Fortune: 19 Million Public Employees Across America Cost Taxpayers Nearly $1 Trillion
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/making-fortune-19-million-public-employees-across-america-cost-taxpayers-nearly-1

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