Debt deal negotiators getting close (Congress and Obama are about to give us $3 trillion more debt)

Politico ^ | 7/31/2011 | By DAVID ROGERS

[tobyhill]

The White House and Republican leaders are closing in on a debt ceiling deal giving President Barack Obama greater certainty in managing the Treasury’s borrowing needs while making a joint commitment to major deficit reductions without any explicit concessions by the GOP on new tax revenues.

Both sides stress that nothing is yet final, but the contours suggest a more practical approach by Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, to achieve many of the party’s goals without pushing Obama and the nation into default. Quoting a figure of $3 trillion, McConnell confirmed Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union” that both sides were close to a deal. “We’ve made dramatic progress in that direction,” he told Gloria Borger.

The proposal builds on elements of a House-passed bill credited with saving $917 billion over the next 10 years and raising the ceiling by $900 billion in two increments that should carry the government through the end of this year.

In the interim, a new joint committee would be charged with coming up with an estimated $1.5 trillion in additional deficit reduction, less than targets set in the House measure but still judged sufficient to match Treasury’s remaining borrowing needs to get though the 2012 election year.

Obama is not guaranteed that he will get the full combined $2.4 trillion debt increase that has been proposed, but he would avoid the recurring threat of default next winter if the committee fails to meet its target.

[treetopsandroofs]

Wow, look how much better it all seems for Hussein and America, just overnight!

FU Big Media, and your Peas of Sh!t messiah!!!!!

[org.whodat]

3 Trillion, duh, the moved base line already adds that much per year and the rinos are dancing in the streets. They signed a no pork pledge and are getting around it by turning 10 % of the budget into a slush fund.

[tobyhill]

The RINOs are celebrating because now they can raise the debt legally.

[dajeeps]

It took Bush 8 years to put $3T on the credit card, and we get it now in ONE?

I certainly hope the conservatives don’t vote for that.

[EagleUSA]

They are working real hard so Obama can get re-elected.
The last thing they are doing is FIXING our economic problems.....And when this three trillion runs out, where do we get the next three trillion, then the next one, etc, etc, etc......

[mrsmith]

According to these reports the deal is set up so it will be impossible to stop the second debt-ceiling hike.

That’s blatantly unacceptable.

[bwc2221]

I would rather see anyone but McConnell negotiating for the GOP.

[tobyhill]

The debt was raised $4.9 trillion in 8 years under Bush from the date he was inaugurated to when he left office.
Obama has raised the debt $3.7 trillion to the date, merely two and a half years from taking office.
This increase will make Obama $6.7 trillion in 4 years which is substantially more then Bush in 8 years.

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

[central_va]

I want a divorce from FedGov™. Secession is the only answer. I wish a state(s) would make a clean break from this evil empire city-state on the Potomac.

[Prokopton]

I would rather see anyone but McConnell negotiating for the GOP.

What makes you think he's negotiating for the GOP?

[RatRipper]

What is that? A 20% increase in the debt limit in one fail swoop? That is just signing on to more insanity.

Not no, but hell no!!! Shut the place down and let the chips fall where they may.

[Politically Correct]

Yawn.....
Just might as well set the debt ceiling at 100T and be done with it. Enough already with histrionics.

The real debt ceiling will be found when no one will buy our bonds anymore......I expect that we'll hit that at about 30T and then they will just print their way out of it with hyperinflation or just default on the whole thing.

The economic disaster is going to be unimaginable.

We are at an awkward point in history.
It's too late to vote them out and too early to shoot them.

[hoosierham]

I just don’t get the people who think Bush was great.He increased the federal government and ran up the debt like no one before him;pretty much set the stage for obama.Still think TARP was unconstitutional besides just wrong.All that set the stage for the obama spending spree.

[FrankR]

The ONLY place the increase is going is into obama's re-election coffers...otherwise the "dates" would not have mattered in the negotiation.

The kenyan is up against the wall this time, he now has a "track record", and frankly, it sucks big time. This election means he has to pull out all the stops and slide the bribes into heretofore unheard of places. The only financial principle that obama really understands is "everyone has their price".

An increase will mean the unions will not desert him, as they will get their cut for sure. ACORN and the like - obama's underground "army" - will be out in force registering more non-existent and ineligible voters than ever.

The courts will overtern voter ID laws just in time for the elections.

Military and absentee votes will mysteriously disappear, again.

Mysterious bags of misplaced votes will suddenly appear from the trunks of voting officials' cars...wow.

WhatEVER it takes, obama will squeak through at the last minutes...or...he'll take up the next five years with endless recounts.

Raising the debt ceilings means we'll get the best election that (our) money can buy. Doesn't it make you really feel all warm and fuzzy that your tax money will be used by obama to pay the unions and thugs to get his sorry ass re-elected.

The GOP - and now the TEA party - seems to have turned indo a cadre of capitulating crybabies. It's pitiful that the humongous show of force by the TEA party movement has been compromised...I guess it was just "drive by patriotism" as the lawns and malls in DC are empty now.

Was it all just a big costume party or a just a fun outing? All I know is, it scared the $h!+ out of the obama crowd and we won the election.

However, it's time for that particular victory party to end and get to work on the next election. The dems are already in full-blown election mode, and it looks as though the old-line RINO's area about to bonus obama his re-election fund.

We caught a glimpse of the "minute men" with the TEA party patriots back in November, but now they all seem to be back at home patting each other on the back, and not following up on their handiwork.

Meanwhile, ol' Plasticface Pelosi, Grumpy Reid, and the COLB forger are warming up their victory dance for 2012.

Once in a great while the conservatives have a shining streak of bravdo and step up to do the right thing, but the old story about elephants panicing at the sight of a mouse (or RAT) must be true...they seemed to have scattered from fear of dem words.

Getting conservatives organized to a common theme seems to be one of the more difficult feats of the modern age...like trying to herd cats, it seems almost impossible to get independent thinkers into a "team".

There is only one way to stop a bully...stand up to him. The dem bullies, however, seem to have free reign on the lilly-livered RINO's in the Congress. To paraphrase a line from "Flight of the Phoenix" (original version), [The RINO's] act as if stupidity was a virtue".

[no-to-illegals]

There will never be a plan to Cut The Spending. To cut spending, departments and programs would have to be eliminated. The people, in the halls of Congress, have a plan, Raising the Ceiling of Debt. The entire scenario would be laughable if this was another nation besides America. Trouble is forty years of insanity, in our nation, is about to be approved to continue till the nation burns to the ground. The supporters of bringing America's House to fiscal sanity is being dealt with by the majority, who have voices and who are certifiably insane calling for a raising of the ceiling of debt, calling those who are sane, who call for spending cuts insane. This fact will never be pointed out by those seeking to burn the country to the ground, instead the majority will again raise the ceiling and promise cuts in the future. What could go wrong, the insane will ask us. Trust us, debt is what made America great. The sane will be outvoted and the insane will continue to rule. May 2012 bring sane people into government. Once the cuts begin, if cut do occur, look for the insane out in the country and the media to begin to institute insanity back into power.

[Nip]

BLUF

There are NO SPENDING REDUCTIONS.

The “Professional Politicians” are at it again. Any reduction in spending that is more than two years in the future will NOT happen. That is the record of Congress and there is no possibility of this or any future Congress doing differently.

Additionally, unless the forecasted (false flagged) deficit reduction is grater than 14 trillion dollars ($ 14,000,000,000,000.00) over the next decade the spending will not be reduced. Remember, through baseline budgeting the spending will increase by 8% every year. This is has been in force since July 1973 (thank you Democratic dominated Congress).

I am have added a new phrase to my tag line - BOHICA.

“Bend over, here it comes again!”

[tobyhill]

Bush spent too much but it's Obama who's spending 3 times as much.
I won't defend Bush on his spending but he did some good things while Obama has done nothing good.

[Travis McGee]

[MayflowerMadam]

“There are NO SPENDING REDUCTIONS.”

Here’s what Stossel recommends in “Take A Chainsaw To The Budget”:

Defense cut by 2/3: $475 billion (Federal Budget, pg. 58)
Medicare/Medicaid*: $441 billion (Cato Institute)
Social Security Means Testing: $170 billion (Heritage Foundation)
Eliminate Dept. of Education (includes Pell Grants): $106.9 billion (Cato Institute)
Social Security*: $85.7 billion (Cato Institute)
Eliminate Dept. of Transportation: $84.8 billion (Cato Institute)
Tax Amnesty: $80 billion (Rep. Jared Polis D-Co.)
Eliminate Dept. of Labor*: $78.6 billion (Department of Labor and White House)
Eliminate HUD: $60.8 billion (Cato Institute)
Eliminate Dept. of Agriculture*: $33 billion (Cato Institute)
Cut civilian employee compensation: $30 billion (Cato Institute)
Stop maintaining vacant federal property: $25 billion (Heritage Foundation)
Eliminate Foreign Aid: $21.2 billion (Cato Institute)
Eliminate Dept. of Energy*: $20.8 billion (Cato Institute)
Eliminate NASA: $19.6 billion (Cato Institute)
Federal Drug War: $15 billion (White House)
Earmark moratorium: $16 billion (Heritage Foundation)
Eliminate Fannie/Freddie Subsidies: $14 billion (Federal Housing Finance Agency (p. 10))
Eliminate Dept. of Commerce: $13.9 billion (Department of Commerce)
Eliminate Dept. of Interior: $12 billion (White House)
Legalize Pot, Online gambling, Immigrants: $12 billion (Rep. Jared Polis D-Co.)
Privatize Army Corps of Engineers: $10.6 billion (Cato Institute)
Cut federal employee travel budget: $10 billion (Heritage Foundation)
Eliminate National Science Foundation: $7.4 billion (National Science Foundation)
End EPA’s State and Local grants: $6.5 billion (Cato Institute)
Repeal Davis-Bacon: $6 billion (Republican Study Committee)
Privatize TSA: $5.7 billion (Federal Budget)
Cut Dept. of Justice’s State and Local grants: $5 billion (Heritage Foundation)
Privatize Post Office: $4 billion (White House)
Eliminate Small Business Administration: $1.8 billion (Small Business Administration)
Lease coastal plain of ANWR: $1.5 billion (Heritage Foundation)
Eliminate Federal Flood Insurance: $1.3 billion (CBO, pg. 3)
Abolish SEC: $1.3 billion (SEC)
Eliminate Corporation for National Community Service: $1 billion (Cato Institute)
Suspend acquisition of federal office space: $1 billion (Heritage Foundation)
End subsidies for public broadcasting: $500 million (Cato Institute)
Eliminate the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp: $480 million (Heritage Foundation)
Eliminate the FCC: $439 million (FCC)
Eliminate the Endowments for Arts/Humanities: $332 million (NEA/NEH)

Total Cut: $1,882,619,000,000
Current deficit: $1,645,000,000,000
Surplus Achieved: $237,619,000,000
(Research by Maxim Lott and Charles Couger.)
They don’t need to drive us deeper in debt. They choose to.

*Notes

Department of Energy is eliminated except for Nuclear arms maintenance
Department of Agriculture is eliminated, except for food programs for the needy
Department of Labor is eliminated, except for 26-week unemployment benefits
Defense budget would still be $243 billion, more than twice what the next highest country (China) spends.
Medicare and Medicaid savings breakdown:
Block grant Medicaid and freeze spending (226)
Repeal 2010 healthcare law (87)
Increase Medicare premiums (39.8)
Cut non-Medicare premiums (37.7)
Cut Medicare payment error rate by 50% (28.6)
Increase Medicare deductibles (12.6)
Tort Reform (10)
Social Security savings breakdown:
Price index initial benefits** 41.1
Raise the normal retirement age** 31.4
Cut Social Security disability program by 10% 13.2