• The GOP got swindled during the 2011 "debt deal" that placed great hope that the "Super Committee" in the sky would do what everyone knows has to be done, but does not have the political courage to do: reform entitlements. Instead, the GOP caved on agreeing to allow the military to take the body blow of 50% of the cuts, despite being 18% of the budget, and being the one agency that is called for in the US Constitution
• This "deal" did nothing but delay those cuts, that are now looming again in about seven weeks. Moreover, it is even worse when the details are examined. The DoD will now have only 7 months to implement the first set of cuts (which last 10 years!) for the remainder of the fiscal year. Worse still, they cannot cut troop strength (although that is coming very soon), so the DoD will be forced to slash the Operations and Maintenance budget line, which is the basically the life blood of the military. The cut will be deep, about 25-30% and will be immediate, resulting in the most rapid and deepest hollowing out of the Defense Dept in American history
• Taxes went up on everyone - the payroll tax was deducted from almost every hard working American's paycheck the day after Congress passed this legislation (and even before Obama's underlings "autopenned" his name
• The tax increases in "the rich" will fund the government for a whopping 6 days
• Real entitlement reform in the coming "debt ceiling" is now no where because of this political defeat the GOP signed onto. That means we are screwed as a nation.
It’s tough when you only control one house and barely control that. When we lost the election it really sealed our fate in so many ways. We can get some traction but how much is hard to say.
We have an administration hell bent on destroying capitalism and installing communism,they got reelected. Sad day for the country.
It won't happen. Congress will work out some sort of deal to avoid it. There are too many Dems who will not want to see such cuts that affect their consitutents. VA is a major recipient of DOD funds. Our two Dem senators and the Dem congressional reps don't support such cuts. You can bet that there will be some sleight of hand fiscal tricks to postpone these cuts as well as the other ones involved with sequestration. The bottomline will be no real cuts for anyone.
Taxes went up on everyone - the payroll tax was deducted from almost every hard working American's paycheck the day after Congress passed this legislation (and even before Obama's underlings "autopenned" his name
I for one am happy that the two year payroll tax holiday was ended. It was a scam. Congress guaranteed that the SSTF would be held harmless by issuing non-market T-bills in the amount of the lost revenue and depositing them into the SSTF. So the costs of the shortfall were made up by the General Fund, which borrows 42 cents on the dollar. This was just more stimulus spending and unlike the Bush tax rebates, it would include everyone who pays SS including those receiving EITCs. Do you think we should continue the payroll tax holiday at the same time that SS is already running a deficit since 2010?