Posted on 11/16/2011 7:14:11 AM PST by AnAmericanAbroad
House Republicans are set to vote later this week on a balanced budget amendment (BBA) that would not cap federal spending as a percentage of GDP or require a supermajority to raise taxes.
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said the vote would probably take place this Friday.
Cantor said that this version of a BBA, H.J. Res 2 -- rather than one that would cap federal spending, H.J. Res 1 -- was the version “overwhelmingly” favored by House Republicans.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Color me cynical, but I can't say I'm shocked by this.
Al I can say is we are witnessing the greatest failure of leadership in our nation’s history, at all levels of government. Corporate stewardship is not much better.
It's all accounting gimmicks. It's the spending, not the bookkeeping.
We need a balance budget amendment to the US Constitution, but given the way Obama and now Congress with their Super Committee BS the Constitution is about gone and it wouldn’t mean much.
I'd rather see some amendment requiring a balanced budget. We can deal with the spending level issue later.
I think it would be best to propose two amendments: one that requires a balanced budget, and another to cap the spending at something like 20% (which is what the tax level has been for decades, despite various changes).
Let the states decide whether to ratify one or the other, or both. You might be surprised at the outcome.
Wow ! Cantor? Really?
THROW THEM ALL OUT !
that headline made my head explode.
No matter what they say on the campaign trail, the professional GOP Establishment politicians all go to DC and turn into Democrat lite.
If I read it correctly, this would justify sharp tax increases without any party being responsible.
Cap spending at 5%.
The whole BBA exercise is a farce, and tax revenues historically don’t exceed 18%, which is far too much to give the swine in D.C.
Ah. No fingerprints. Your tax dollars at work.
big whoopie flip.CRAct amendments and Dodd/Frank bills need deleted. and ALL senate and congress 75% pay cut no raises and no insider trading,immediate cut on all pages,staf,no more vacations until the budget is balanced.
Just confirming that my favorite Liberal Pat Cadell is right when he calls the GOP “the stupid party”.
If only I had Like Button....
“Like”
I don’t mind them voting on it as long as they vote NAY.
WHAT LEADERSHIP?
All meetings are done behind closed doors, special deals are made, they scratch one anothers back and then come out with statements like this, BS.
It shows more and more that it’s a club of back stabbers who care nothing about the tax payers until time for re-election.
There is one set of rules, passed by our elected theives, for themselves and another for set of rules for the rest of the American people.
It depends on what taxes you include.
This is all taxes: individual and corporate income, social insurance, and excise. Note that the tax rate has hovered just above 20%.
You can find graphs of average tax rate, by the type of tax, at: US Federal Taxes by Income Level. They were derived from data published by the Congressional Budget OFfice -- which is also archived on that page.
The Federal Government does to us, what Jerry Sandusky did to those kids.
Maybe the Libyans had the right idea.
The good news is that there’s a call to have the constitution changed to require a balanced budget.
The bad news is that under that law taxes must be increased to cover increased spending.
The really bad news is that there is a percent of income that a household needs to both survive, launch, and continue to produce.
Greece is learning that it is possible to kill a nation from within.
Tax rate is not the same as tax revenue.
Balancing the budget doesn’t matter one bit if spending is not tied to GDP. All balancing the budget means is the government has to have income equal to its obligations. A 100% tax rate could be a response to this ammendment.
Cap spedning at a percentage of GDP and then the BBA accomplishes what we need it to.
Liberals will vote this down in the Senate and the GOP can run on this in 2012.
It is an election-year ploy by our side and it is a smart move.
Stop mixing ideology with politics......they don’t go together.
The BBA is a feel good action, that's all. Common sense says the budget should be balanced.
We can deal with the spending level issue later.
We need to address spending now.
Cleanup on aisle 4, please.
That's correct. But, we were talking about spending rates, expressed in a percentage.
If you can get spending rates to match the tax rate, it balance the budget.
This is how Republicans operate. They’ll usually make the wrong choice. I hope the House votes down this bill.
Revenues, not rates.
5% of GDP would be about right if we have a legitimate government.
Yes, and the BBA isn't going to make that happen. The ratification process can take a long time -- it's typically limited to 7 years when the amendment is proposed.
I'd rather get the amendment in the pipeline, and address the spending issue at the ballot box. Putting a spending limitation in the amendment will make it more difficult to achieve the 3/4th's of states for ratification.
Making it a separate amendment is another way to address the spending issue. You might even find that some states decide to ratify it, and not the BBA -- but both amendments achieve the required 38 states from different sets.
You need to read the footnotes:
Average Total US Federal Tax Rate 1979-2007
Or at least the source data:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/USFederalTaxRatesAndTaxShares.1979-2007.PDF
Average tax rates are calculated by dividing taxes by comprehensive household income.
Comprehensive household income equals pretax cash income plus income from other sources. Pretax cash income is the sum of wages, salaries, self-employment income, rents, taxable and nontaxable interest, dividends, realized capital gains, cash transfer payments, and retirement benefits plus taxes paid by businesses (corporate income taxes and the employer's share of Social Security, Medicare, and federal unemployment insurance payroll taxes) and employees' contributions to 401(k) retirement plans. Other sources of income include all in-kind benefits (Medicare, Medicaid, employer-paid health insurance premiums, food stamps, school lunches and breakfasts, housing assistance, and energy assistance).
Individual income taxes are attributed directly to households paying those taxes. Social insurance, or payroll, taxes are attributed to households paying those taxes directly or paying them indirectly through their employers. Corporate income taxes are attributed to households according to their share of capital income. Federal excise taxes are attributed to them according to their consumption of the taxed good or service.
These charts don't reflect the legislated tax rates. They reflect the actual taxes paid (or received, if you prefer), divided by comprehensive income. The actual taxes paid are the same as tax revenue.
5% of GDP would be about right if we have a legitimate government
As much as I would like that to occur, it's not going to happen.
Thomas Jefferson would agree with you.
I have to say I laughed out loud at your comment, otherwise I would be crying at this total lack of leadership by Beohner and Cantor.
When the Dems were in control of the House, they even locked the GOP out of the committee conferences. Have they forgotten already?
Now that we gave the GOP a majority in the House where they can dictate spending, they can't wait to go along to get along. After one year from now, no matter what the outcome of the 2012 election, the GOP needs to go the way of the Whigs,and a new party formed to replace it, and the Dem leadership needs to go to jail. We are hurtling toward a financial iceberg, and these clowns are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
And how do you get Congress to do that? Congress controls it own schedule, pay, benefits, staff levels etc.
I doubt congress pays any income taxes. There’s no way to prove it. They can put out any bogus paper they want. And since they control the IRS’s budget the IRS will help them fool us. Hey, we’re easy to fool.
We the people should have marched on the capital with torches and pitchforks decades ago. It’s too late now.
As for the economy, etc. These congress people have already lined their pockets with our money so all they’re doing is making themselves richer while waiting on the crash.
And my tag line doesn’t even work anymore. I believe most of the tea party candidates had read THE PRINCE. They jumped in front of the crowd and yelled “Follow me!”
There could be a second party, third party, fourth party or dance party and the same type of people will run. Good honest working people can’t afford to run.
Let them spend as much as they want except it must come out of their pay check, not mine.
Are these fools trying to start a revolution?
OMG. If this passes, it’s over.
Of course it won’t happen. at least not through any normal political process.
No, No way, and Hell NO!
It took how many years to get the 27th Amendment limiting in office pay hikes?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-seventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
And now we find the rascals have exempted themselves from SEC action when they’re engaging in Insider Trading.
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/after-all-of-the-crazy-insider-trading-that-now-has-been-revealed-how-can-the-american-people-ever-trust-congress-again
At this rate we’ll end up with a Constitution Amended to the size of an NYC phone book, and All of it completely meaningless, which was the end game to begin with.
We don’t need, or Want, another junk Amendment riddled with escape clauses for back-stabbing electocrats.
The problem, as Jed Babbin put it, is that no matter a candidate´s electioneering promises or intentions, the minute they arrive in DC, they all “go native” on us.
The party bosses take them aside and explain it to them.
“That’s all well and good, but if you cross us, on Anything, we´ll shove You offstage.”
The cure for this is the end of the Fed Dept of Ed. and maybe in 20 years we’ll have an electorate that’ll pay attention to the process at All levels from DC on down to their own City Halls.
See tagline...
Why should this congress have the right to make the next congress do anything?
They are responsible for what they vote for. They are not responsible for what the next congress votes for. How simple can it be?
Are they trying to lose the House ?
OK. Sorry for late reply. Have a great Thanksgiving.
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