Posted on 08/01/2011 10:02:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Ron Paul slams it right out of the ballpark.
When a Cut is Not a Cut
One might think that the recent drama over the debt ceiling involves one side wanting to increase or maintain spending with the other side wanting to drastically cut spending, but that is far from the truth. In spite of the rhetoric being thrown around, the real debate is over how much government spending will increase.
No plan under serious consideration cuts spending in the way you and I think about it. Instead, the "cuts" being discussed are illusory, and are not cuts from current amounts being spent, but cuts in projected spending increases. This is akin to a family "saving" $100,000 in expenses by deciding not to buy a Lamborghini, and instead getting a fully loaded Mercedes, when really their budget dictates that they need to stick with their perfectly serviceable Honda. But this is the type of math Washington uses to mask the incriminating truth about their unrepentant plundering of the American people.
The truth is that frightening rhetoric about default and full faith and credit of the United States is being carelessly thrown around to ram through a bigger budget than ever, in spite of stagnant revenues. If your family's income did not change year over year, would it be wise financial management to accelerate spending so you would feel richer? That is what our government is doing, with one side merely suggesting a different list of purchases than the other.
In reality, bringing our fiscal house into order is not that complicated or excruciatingly painful at all. If we simply kept spending at current levels, by their definition of "cuts" that would save nearly $400 billion in the next few years, versus the $25 billion the Budget Control Act claims to "cut". It would only take us 5 years to "cut" $1 trillion, in Washington math, just by holding the line on spending. That is hardly austere or catastrophic.
A balanced budget is similarly simple and within reach if Washington had just a tiny amount of fiscal common sense. Our revenues currently stand at approximately $2.2 trillion a year and are likely to remain stagnant as the recession continues. Our outlays are $3.7 trillion and projected to grow every year. Yet we only have to go back to 2004 for federal outlays of $2.2 trillion, and the government was far from small that year. If we simply returned to that year's spending levels, which would hardly be austere, we would have a balanced budget right now. If we held the line on spending, and the economy actually did grow as estimated, the budget would balance on its own by 2015 with no cuts whatsoever.
We pay 35 percent more for our military today than we did 10 years ago, for the exact same capabilities. The same could be said for the rest of the government. Why has our budget doubled in 10 years? This country doesn't have double the population, or double the land area, or double anything that would require the federal government to grow by such an obscene amount.
In Washington terms, a simple freeze in spending would be a much bigger "cut" than any plan being discussed. If politicians simply cannot bear to implement actual cuts to actual spending, just freezing the budget would give the economy the best chance to catch its breath, recover and grow.
Any Republican that votes for this and says they are cutting actual spending is a total and abject liar.
I don’t like Paul’s positions on drugs and illegal immigration, but on Gov’t spending, entitlements and debt, his comments are always excellent.
Curious how they can be negotiating anything when there is no official basis such as the required by the Constitution budget in place to base anything upon. There hasn’t been a budget since the one G.W.Bush put in place that expired October I believe of 2009.
This “President” wants to raise the debt ceiling so he can spend, spend, spend, but hasn’t done his job constitutionally. Where’s the outrage? Where’s the protest?
What am I missing here? Something is rotten in America.
http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com
AND CBO used 2010 GDP numbers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not 2011 numbers. So cuts are overblown.
Rush discussed base-line budgeting at length, last Thursday
Yes. bttt We're seeing a BIG HEAD-FAKE" all over the media: "This a BIG Tax-Cut WIN for the TEA PARTY".
Even though there are NO tax-cuts, only tax increases, when the economy continues to implode during 2012, which it will, Obama will be able to say on the campaign trail that "we tried tax cuts, but as you can plainly see, they didn't work."
Conservatives should NOT fall for this trap!
Rep Gohmert (sp?)of Texas and Rush are exposing it too.
Rush had an interview with Louie Gommert (R-TX) that was an eye-opener. Congressman Gommert stayed up all night and not only read the 70+ page bill, but also the references to other bills that the implementation of this one would be pursuant to. The spending cuts would not take place until 2013. The Bush tax cuts would expire next year, which is a tax hike.
There is no way that the TEA Party GOP can go for this charade that is rigged so that Obama can buy votes in ‘12 with his new credit limit and depends on a committee of politicians to cut spending in the distant future. Boehner is an incompetent for agreeing to this lousy deal.
This is one area where I listen to Ron Paul. The only one.
Today Americans see just how corrupt the republican leadership ship actually has become. They mislead voters in the same exact manner the democrat socialists mislead.
Anyone who doubted the republican leadership are in bed with the New World Order socialists should have all doubt removed.
Those who say 2012 will save us lack understanding of just where in history we are presently standing. Many nations throughout history have stood at this very same place, on the edge of tyranny. The only queation remaining is do we the people win or do we go silently in to that long cold and bitter night of enslavement?
What will future historians say about this time, our time, did we fail to keep the light of freedom burning bright.
Exactly. Apparently Beck is also exposing it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2757016/posts
I’m so angry and disappointed with Boehner. We need $10T in cuts over the next 4 years. Instead, Boehner promises the opposite and delivers less than one-tenth of what is actually needed.
Boner, here’s a clue: If you want to separate yourself from the Progressive Fascists on both sides of the aisle who insist on raising the debt limit while increasing taxes and government spending, agree with their proposal as long as they accept these demands effective within the next four years -
Abolish the Federal Reserve
Abolish the Federal Reserve
Abolish the Federal Reserve
Abolish the Department of Health and Human Services
Abolish the Department of Education
Abolish the Transportation Security Administration
Abolish the Department of Homeland Security
Abolish the Department of Commerce
Abolish the Federal Reserve (did I mention that already?)
Abolish the Department of Housing and Urban Development
Abolish the Department of Labor
Abolish the Department of Transportation
Abolish the Department of Energy
Abolish the Federal Housing Administration
Abolish the Federal National Mortgage Association
Abolish the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation
Abolish the Federal Trade Commission
Abolish the Government National Mortgage Association
Abolish the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR
Abolish the National Endowment for the Arts
Abolish the National Endowment for the Humanities
Abolish the EPA, FDA, OSHA, and IRS
Eliminate all subsidies
Eliminate all federal bailouts
Eliminate all foreign aid
Eliminate Obamacare
Turn Medicare/Medicaid into Medical Savings Accounts
Turn Social Security into 401k’s
Abolish the Federal Reserve (in case I forgot to mention it)
Loosening regulations will allow the private sector and local governments to quickly fill the voids left by the cuts. Lets start with that to reign in this federal beast.
And to that I ad abolish the Federal Reserve. NOW!
Same here. While in no way is he presidential material, he tends to be dead-on with issues like this.
On most other things, he tends to be bat-guano crazy.
Bookmark
...Bravo, give Paul credit for being correct on some issues. I support him on lots of things, some, well, We can reasonally debate...
...That should be our discourse...
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