Posted on 03/31/2011 5:15:16 PM PDT by Kaslin
Budget: Congressional negotiators have trumpeted a "breakthrough" in budget talks that will yield $33 billion in spending cuts. Sorry, but we're not impressed.
We've done the math on this, and the $33 billion in cuts amounts to just 0.89% of expected spending of $3.7 trillion this year. It is just 2.2% of the deficit.
In short, it's a pittance, so minuscule in the grand scheme of things it can't be taken seriously. Put another way, the deficit this year will equal 40% of the budget. This "cut" would reduce that to 39%. It's not enough.
What's dispiriting is that Republicans had tried to cut a piddling $73 billion from our $1.5 trillion deficit and couldn't get to first base with the Democrats. What will happen when the serious talks start on the 2012 budget and beyond? We're not optimistic.
We applaud the GOP effort. Last year, the Democrat-controlled Congress didn't even pass a budget for 2011, leaving it to the GOP this year. Talk about cynical.
But if something isn't done to address our long-term budget imbalances, the problems will only get worse.
"Over the next 10 years," says former Congressional Budget Office head Douglas Holtz-Eakin, "deficits exceed 4.1% of GDP every year, debt in the hand of the public doubles and the debt-to-GDP ratio rises above 87%. Net interest climbs to almost 20% of revenues — even with large tax increases — in 2020. The result: The U.S. faces having its debt downgraded beginning in 2018."
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
“What will happen when the serious talks start on the 2012 budget and beyond?”
If the Republicans won’t go to the mat in an off year, how quickly will they cave in an election year?
We are being sold, buffaloed into slavery. Working ten months a year to pay taxes and forever debt to bankers and the rich.
The Democrats have made house slaves and welfare slaves of blacks. Many whites are dual income servers of the state, and like loyal capos in the camps, whip masters at the Pyramids, due their masters bidding for material objects.
Republicans are to conservativism what Jesse Jackson is to black property.
I’m really beginning to think of the GOP as a evil party, worse then the up front, welfare slaving Democrats.
That’s only a few hours of spending. We need numbers of at least $750 million to make any headway.
That’s only a few hours of spending. We need numbers of at least $750 million to make any headway.
I think CATO had a good ad in WSJ today using bar graphs to compare the cuts to the deficit and the debt. It’s like the Feds losing a penny out of their pocket, and it can’t be done. Stick the fork in. This country is done.
That’s $750 BILLION:)
Don’t worry I’m sure they will reach across the aisle to balance the budget... with tax hikes, tagline related.
Familiarize yourself with the term Quadrillion. It follows Trillion and will come into common use in the not to distant future. Cutting the budget by 1% is a joke as anyone who handles a household budget knows. Perhaps if you have a PhD in economics from Harvard you might think of such a cut as extreme. Some commentators have suggested that the Tea Party has peaked and on the way out. The Tea Party was a response to corrupt government which led to suffering. As this suffering increases so will the Tea Party.
....yeah, the Astro-turf has run amok
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