Posted on 06/27/2011 1:45:09 PM PDT by quesney
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Monday that a "significant" deal with Republicans on cutting government spending and raising the nation's debt limit is still possible, even as the administration hardened its stance on the need for increased tax revenue to be part of any agreement. President Barack Obama made his first direct foray into the deficit negotiations Monday. He met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the Oval Office for about 30 minutes Monday morning, and planned to meet with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell in the early evening. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama's meeting with Reid was "constructive" and the president concluded that there are still opportunities for a deal to be reached. But he said the only way to achieve that objective would be to include tax increases or the elimination of tax breaks for big companies and wealthy individuals.
"It's the only way to get it done," Carney said. The White House has proposed raising about $600 billion in new tax revenue, including ending subsidies to oil and gas companies, an idea that failed in the Senate.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
When I see that figure I immediately think of what economic activity I will end to afford it.
Its funny. When its below 4.00 I don't think that way.
He told me that he knows people who live better than he does that are on welfare. They get government debit cards for food. They then go to grocery stores and trade the cards for cash. The merchant will ring up 200 dollars of food on the card, then give 160 dollars to the holder, and keep all the merchandise. So the Merchant makes 40 dollars for the transaction. The Welfare recipient gets his 160 dollars. He then spends this on Cocaine and a pack of hotdogs. He then goes home to his well furnished government supplied apartment and snorts his crack and drinks his beer and eats his hot dogs.
Meanwhile, some schlub goes to work and half his pay is taken from him to pay for this crap.
This is America in the year 2011.
As Obama would say— “only” $400 billion?
Congress and the White House are moving towards a series of short-term debt extensions, because Republicans don’t want to raise taxes and Democrats don’t want to touch entitlement spending reductions until after the 2012 election. Nobody wants to annoy their political base before the election, and the White House doesn’t give a hoot about increasing federal debt substantially in the next 18 months. This is exactly what I thought would happen. Link to article on this subject from CNBC:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43597374
We’re dealing with such huge budget and deficit numbers now—the whole subject has become surreal. The day of reckoning is not far away when taxes and inflation have to increase substantially to pay for all this over-spending and all the interest on our massive federal debt. Food and energy inflation has already increased dramatically and higher general inflation is not far off.
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