Posted on 10/23/2022 10:32:10 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
House Republicans are looking to use a vote on raising the debt ceiling, a must-pass measure to avoid stark economic consequences and damaging credit of the United States, to get concessions on spending cuts if they win control of the chamber in the midterm elections.
The federal government is expected to reach the $31.4 trillion debt limit, last increased in 2021, sometime in 2023. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is likely to become Speaker should the GOP take the lower chamber in November, is preparing for a battle with the Biden administration over curbing spending as a condition for a debt ceiling increase.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Yep. If they were serious, they’d cut off funding to the FBI and other deep state actors that are hurting Americans.
I wish we could have some showdowns over government spending. But probably it is theater.
Tough budgetary choices would be needed to make this happen.
But whenever we have seen showdowns of this sort in the past, the liberals and media blame Republicans for taking food away from kids in school, and wanting poor people to go hungry, and blame Republicans for wanting to throw Granny off the cliff. So nothing tangible is accomplished.
If they shut it down, they’ll be blamed for the incoming depression.
They always cave to the media.
I wonder if anyone has done any serious analysis of government spending.
For example, I’ve heard government spends money renting office space which is not being used. I’ve heard that there are government contracts which for unknown reasons, are not subjected to competitive bidding. There are even some employees who are in jobs which aren’t really needed. Does anyone ever make any efforts, to review spending? Federal spending seems to just always grow and grow, without regard to whether the money is being spent wisely, and also spent completely disconnected from the tax revenue being collected to fund the government programs in the first place.
To me, a basic first step would be to have a balanced budget. But I know that is very unlikely to ever happen.
About 75% of government spending is now mandatory spending on entitlements (Social Security, etc.). Very unlikely that cuts will occur here.
So, 25% of the budget (Defense, etc.) would be available for “fiscally responsible cuts”.
It’s kabuki.
If the GOPe do-nothings perform like they have in the past they’ll get tossed in 2026 as many voters will stay at home, this is not hard to predict if history is any indication.
I’ve seen first hand (just retired after 28 years air force). Yes the gov’t wastes money all the time. Some places the money is tight and they do the best they can with little money. But places where there money flows...oh man the waste that comes out of that.
So the key is defunding the agencies and they learn to do more with less. The problem is not the under-funded agencies...it’s the over funded ones.
So all cuts in spending realistically, will come from that 25% which is not on automatic pilot.
The amounts involved are staggering. I’ve heard that there are over $100 Trillion, with a T, in unfunded liabilities of the federal government. That’s in addition to the “official” debt of $30 plus trillion as of now.
Without drastic action/divine intervention, I don’t see how these trillions of debt/unfunded liabilities can ever be paid.
we need to stop talking about this BS
shut downs NEVER work, all they end up doing is giving the government employees a long paid vacation.
I agree.
One the one hand, it is inconceivable that we would inflate our currency, increase our taxes, and cut our discretionary spending to come up with $100T. Hey, maybe it sounds like a nice idea but I don't see that happening.
On the other hand, we could default on our entire debt and just start over, doing everything differently, unburdened by the problems we have built up over the past many decades. That too is inconceivable. Nations don't do that. We would never default.
But I don't see a real third option, so I say that one of those two "impossible" things is going to happen. And I think it's clear that a default, and a fresh start, is the smart way to go.
Who suffers the most from a US default? The bankers and the globalists who encouraged our debt. Screw them.
Lucky for us fiat paper holders that there is a recovery plan in place for just this scenario.
N.E.S.A.R.A.
And they never were and never will be. 1040 Tax revenues are NOT tied to government spending, just to banksters that created the FED in 1913, as they continually create money from thin air. See the Grace Commission. See Jekyll Island. See what really happened on the Titanic.
Alot of that has to do with dumb planning. My ex MIL, worked at West Point. Her job was to take care of the Post Officer housing. When 9/11 happened and all the academics put in for deployment to get their combat tickets punched, she had way less Post Housing to fill. When they came back, the DOD wouldn’t give her the extra money they needed. So she swore she’d just spend as much as she did in previous years, so they wouldn’t screw her over.
Yep. That is a big issue...0 based budgeting. There is no reward for “saving”.
But that is why I said agencies/military units that get a lot of funding can waste the most. Units will small funding kind of have to always play catch up so they can’t waste so much.
One thing that *could* help is to do a 2 year budget instead of 1 year. That would cut wasteful end of year spending in half since it would only happen every two years.
Now is the time to stop increasing the debt ceiling and to cut spending. Americans can completely relate and understand because they are doing the same thing in their budgets.
*sob!*
Defense can afford cuts. But also we need to reform welfare. I know they will say that’s a drop in the bucket, but what is missed is the fact that you are paying people to NOT be productive which also hurts our GDP and ability to raise tax revenues from working people. And it teaches people to get on welfare and game the system. Don’t get married, get medicaid for the kids, the man goes to work and pays the bills while the women gets gov’t handouts.
Agreed! Congrats on your retirement!
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