“Any “deficit reduction plan” that relies on “off year” cuts isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. That’s why “pledges” to reduce spending in exchange for tax increases always fail to the Dem’s benefit.”
You are correct that any spending promises made now can be erased later, but your point is not valid wrt how his cuts work. If passed, they WOULD cut spending dramatically. If we had a GOP Congress and President, this and more is what we need to do in the budget.
When it comes to entitlements, a lot of the spending is on ‘autopilot’ and changing the rules of the game determines the spending path. That is MOST of what Coburn is doing.
We need to change social security and medicare rules NOW in order to bend down the rate of spending, even in 5-10-15 years. Things like raising age limits, adding means testing, fixing eligibility, all of these things can and will be lasting budget spending cuts, if enacted.
you can add the transportation and a lot of the subsidies. Killing a subsidy now might be undone later, but once its is done, it is harder to bring back than simple feeding it status quo.
On other matters, it is quite clear that Obama has a massive budget over 10 years and we need to rebaseline it towards sanity. Obama and others didnt dig this hole in a day or a year and it will take years to dig ourselves out of it.
Really? How? By what mechanism will future Congresses and Presidents be bound to this agreement? A "Pledge?"
If we had a GOP Congress and President, this and more is what we need to do in the budget.
We had that for 6 years, and it didn't happen. Pubs can't be trusted any more than Dems when nobody's looking. Winning both Houses and the Presidency is no guarantee the "Pledge" (Hah!) will be upheld. To the contrary, it appears from bitter experience.
Taxes will be raised today, spending cuts are always in the future, then they never happen in the end. I'm tired of our side getting snookered every time, and this will be another example if it passes.
adding means testing
Does that wound like a good idea to you? Spread that SS wealth around a little?