Posted on 12/31/2024 8:36:05 PM PST by RandFan
President-elect Trump is headed for a battle over the debt limit with conservative lawmakers who are demanding steep cuts to federal spending that will significantly complicate Trump’s ability to pass his agenda next year.
Thirty-eight House Republicans sent a warning to Trump last week by rejecting his demand to extend the nation’s borrowing authority for two years, casting doubt on Trump’s influence over GOP conservatives.
Conservatives now say Trump will need to agree to deep cuts in spending if he wants their support for raising the debt limit in 2025.
“We’re about 33 percent overdrawn. We bring in about $4.8 trillion [in revenue] and spend $6.8 trillion [per year], so you got to get about $2 trillion worth of spending down,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said.
Paul hailed the defeat of Trump’s plan to raise the debt limit as part of a stopgap government funding measure. He said it shows the leverage fiscal hawks will have over the White House next year.
He said there are blocs of conservatives in both chambers who will insist on matching a debt limit increase with big spending cuts.
“That debate’s going to be ongoing. I for one am going to do what I can to make sure the debt ceiling becomes more important,” he said.
Paul called the defeat of Trump’s proposal to raise the debt limit without spending cuts “a good day for conservatives.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
While the potential savings in defense are huge, to cut that budget will take many structural changes in procurement. Given that existing multi-year contracts are already in place, it is not a quick thing to cut.
There will be no cuts.
Cuts of any significant amount cannot get 60 votes in the Senate.
And that’s that.
Government let down
💲to the lobby
1:13 government.....
The current annual federal budget deficit is $100 billion more than ALL the discretionary spending including 100% of the defense budget and ICE/border patrol, etc., etc..
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/60419
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/59729
The potential savings to health care are even greater — when we (can) stop spending several times more on diabetes alone than the entire defense budget.
At least $400 billion a year is spent on corporate welfare.
I would like to stop spending the country into inflation oblivion.
I’d be fine with spending a trillion or two to expel 50 million illegals, but that’s probably not where most of the immediate spending would go.
Define “corporate welfare”.
(And keep in mind that choosing to not tax or lowering a tax on a particular type of industry/corporation is not “welfare”).
If you mean subsidies then I agree that could be included in the term “welfare”.
Climate Change cr** should ALL be eliminated.
Elected politicians are addicted to spending other peoples money. The question for the nation is how does one end an addition? Do you do it by going “cold turkey?” Do you end it by gradually tapering off, but know it will take longer?
Medically, it depends on how healthy and physically strong the patient is. So how strong and healthy is the US and World economy? Those are the questions that need to be publicly debated.
I see Trump’s proposal as being a quick, but tapering off of the addictive overspending. I see others as wanting to go cold turkey. I see Democrats as wanting to keep spending and kick the can down the road to be resolved another day.
I am old enough to remember LBJ’s “guns and butter” Great Society concept on spending. Prior to that wars were financed with war bond drives. The USA is now financing proxy wars around the world without selling any “war bonds.” We are also expanding entitlements left and right, regardless of affordability.
I was once in WA DC lobbying because Congress forgot one year to include as a business tax deduction that was expiring a continuation of business being able to treat employee education expenses as tax deductible. In the process of my sincere arguments, a Senator told me that tax deduction (like many others) can never be made permanent. The reason was that under Congressional Budget Office projections temporary tax cuts that end within 7 future years are removed from revenue/deficit projections. So Congress uses an accounting trick of temporary tax cuts to not face the true projected fiscal deficit. Congress uses every trick possible to deceive the public and themselves of the financial problems we face. Just look at Social Security, public pensions, interest on the national debt.
Ukraine ping
Robert357: [I am old enough to remember LBJ’s “guns and butter” Great Society concept on spending. Prior to that wars were financed with war bond drives. The USA is now financing proxy wars around the world without selling any “war bonds.” We are also expanding entitlements left and right, regardless of affordability.]
“You idiots!
What do you think DOGE is all about???”
All the more reason to view Trump’s agenda to raise the ceiling as a mixed signal and contradiction.
You can’t claim to want lower spending by wanting the ability to spend more. It is absolutely illogical, irrational, and questionable. It makes no sense at all...
So are you one of those idiots that thinks “tax cuts must be paid for”?
Good, but you forgot one thing, a 10% import tariff that will bring a Trillion every 2 or 3 years....
Nope you are actually just a political idiot thinking offering up bad advise will somehow help his politically dead god DeSantis
Grow up, it is over. Trump won, you lost.
I would say that a 10% import tariff that when directly to fund SS and MC would be in order. End MC.
This should be easy. Take every state with two Democrat senators that has voted “blue” in the last three presidential elections and slash any appropriations for their Democratic House districts.
When has the Debt Ceiling ever been enforced by any Congress?
It a useless bit of political posting by the political dogmatics to pretend they are “doing something” while actually being totally worthless except as a tool to force a GOP President to sign bad emergency CRs or crash the US Economy.
Like it or not real world US politics do not work the way Conservative Inc think it does. Useless political posturing about “the Debt Ceiling” by certain narcissists Congress critters, while doing NOTHING to actually reign in spending, is infantile.
It make Conservative Inc all giddy while actually doing nothing at all to contain spending.
How about you all stop mindlessly squealing for useless gesutrues and start demanding your Congress start actually DOING IT JOB for a change
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