The Administration isn’t serious about the fiscal cliff, Part II,
December 4, 2012 at 9:41 am in News by Dustin Siggins 13 Comments
Earlier today, this blog published a post noting how unserious the Administration is about the fiscal cliff and fiscal responsibility in general, as evidenced by his entirely unserious first offer on the debt ceiling. This offer, which consisted of pitifully small cuts in the future for massive tax increases and the elimination of the debt ceiling now, was followed by the President taking off for a multi-week vacation.
The President’s offer was made last week. Unfortunately, his surrogates continued to show how unserious the entire Administration is, through Treasury Secretary Geithner’s comments on ABC’s “This Week” and CNN’s “State of the Union.” From the USA TODAY website:
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner echoed another White House message to Republicans during a string of Sunday show interviews: no Social Security talks as part of the fiscal cliff negotiations.
“We’re prepared to, in a separate process, look at how to strengthen Social Security,” Geithner said on ABC’s This Week. “But not as part of a process to reduce the other deficits the country faces.”
As we reported earlier this morning, Geithner also said the White House will insist that any agreement will include higher tax rates on the wealthy.
So let’s get this straight:
- The President wants major tax increases that will – assuming his $1.6 trillion request goes through, which it won’t – be equivalent to about three percent of the next decade’s spending.
- His $400 billion in future spending cuts are less than one percent of the next decade’s spending.
- Social Security is about 21% of the federal budget, and needs reform so it doesn’t go bankrupt in the next 21 years. The longer we wait, the worse it gets.
- Raising taxes on the wealthy will be equivalent to 1.88% of the next decade’s spending.
In short, the President simply doesn’t care about how the debt will crush at least one generation of Americans. It’s more important to tax millions of Americans in order to satisfy his ideology.
NO MORE DEBT. NOT FOR ANY REASON.
We need to make sure the administration gets this message very loud and clear. I don’t hear this message coming from the current Republican leadership.
The entire plan for this administration requires adding to the already ludicrously high debt. They must be forced to grow up. Boehner’s performance on this issue has been abyssmal.
The bottom line is, basing a government expenditure on continually borrowing money as if there is some other government to put our government on welfare when we eventually run out of money is ludicrous. The government must begin to live within its means.
We need to change the leadership in Congress and have someone speak for us that will get this message across. The current Republican leadership has been woefully weak. We should not expect any change to the insanity we have witnessed during the past 4 years if we do not change the Republican leadership.
Paul Ryan should be the next Speaker of the House.
I agree with DBWriter in regard to the message that needs to be sent to the administration. The idea that taxes can be raised with the promise of “future” cuts has already been shown to be a falsehood. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid must be reformed in order to bring down spending. This is something that should have been done long ago and should not be put off any longer. Additional spending cuts must also be made–and made now, not sometime down the road when another congress convienently cancels the cuts. Reagan learned that lesson long ago. Make the cuts immedicate and any tax increases “in the future”, the government may find that “in the future” they can get along just fine without increasing taxes.
Candy – Yes, Reagan cut funding for the poor but overall spending went up enormously. Please check the numbers for yourself. Reagan was not a fiscal conservative President.
Reagan had to win the Cold War by taking us from the brink of defeat and not even being a country anymore to victory. That had a cost. Comparing winning the Cold War to stuffing our money into the pockets of Democrat cronies is ludicrous… unless you’re talking about the amount of money needed to win the Cold War compared to the amount of money stolen from us in the past 4 years.
DBWriter – You live in a different reality for thinking the United States was ever on the brink of losing the Cold War! We were never on the brink on losing the Cold War. In fact, the CIA informed Reagan that the Soviets were on the verge of economic collapse. Yes, Reagan may have accelerated their end but it was coming especially after their defeat in Afghanistan. BTW – Reagan loved FDR, he said his domestic policies saved his family during the Great Depression. It wasn’t until his time at GE did he change his views.
Reality: The front in the Cold War had moved from halfway around the world to right on our southern border when Reagan took office. The US military had deteriorated to the condition evidenced by the details of the invasion of Grenada, which was a fiasco that only succeeded because of scale of force used. Reagan had to rebuild the Armed Forces from that to what it was when Bush41 used it in the Gulf War. “Stagflation” was the norm, and anyone not an idiot will tell you the continuance of that condition will collapse any economy, which means the end of our existence.
You have obviously been indocrinated with a fraudulent history ignoring the inconvenient facts.
I’m sorry your side lost the Cold War. But, you have to admit, the United States is (was) such a remarkable country with a remarkable people, it won the Cold War even with the Democrats, the largest political party in the country, joining the enemy and assisting the communists in their attempt to end our existence.
The United States defeated communism. Get over it.
Ronald Regan was more fiscally conservative than George W. Bush or Obama. I can not believe in a time like this people are bashing President Ronald Regan, when this should be a time in the GOP that people should be looking up to Regan. Ronald Regan was one of the greatest presidents in 20th century history. There are few presidents in history I really admire and Ronald Regan is one of them.
Yes, that is true compared to Obama and GW Bush, but that doesn’t say much. The facts don’t lie. Reagan was not fiscal conservative. Look at deficit spending in the 80′s. I like Reagan too but you gotta accept the facts.
What does our government (and I include the “Republicans” now in control in D.C.) have planned when the global economy collapses? do they seriously think creating and spending more “money” is going to have some good effects? Or taking control of increasing amounts of the economy, more central planning and less freedom, is going to work?
Does anybody believe that?
They do have plans. That’s why we have police state laws and so many Executive branch SWAT teams to back up all the “Homeland Security” forces and drones, and local police armed like the military…
This is why we need to work to remove from positions of authority, and if possible from congress any and all progressives. We need to remember that progressives rule both political parties and we need to work to get them out of congress. I am not concerned about the white house. The real seat of power in this country is the congress. They control the purse, and if the president triess to buck them, they can impeach him and should. For now, we all need to remember that the people chose not to give anyone a mandate except the mandate that they do nothing. This is 2010 redux.
The only thing that is keeping this deal from happening is tax cuts for the rich. THAT”S IT! It goes to show that these politicians ONLY work for the rich and the middle class are the ones who get screwed.
Do we wait until we can’t afford to travel to Washington before we decide it’s time to march?
I think it will be a good idea to be standing on the Capital steps while the next Speaker of the House is selected.
We need a new Speaker. Boehner has been woefully weak, and nothing will change if we do not select a new Speaker.
Paul Ryan should be the next Speaker of the House.