I’ve Got Your Deficit Commission Right Here!
by Joseph C. PhillipsEven as a bloodbath looms in the November distance, the Obama administration continues to push healthcare because they know that Americans love theirentitlements like winos love wine. They are betting the farm that once that fiery warmth begins running through the National body we will not only lovenational health care, but will fight to defend it. We will also be too glassy eyed to notice that we have suddenly signed away our liberty, becoming slaves to those that serve us. But I digress.
Like wine, entitlements cost money. Sadly the more addicted we become the less money we have to spend on more important and often essential things. The wino lacks food, housing and clothing; the entitlement addict lacks employment, savings and luxury.
Consider that today our national debt stands at roughly $12 trillion or roughly 70% of our gross domestic product or GDP. But wait. We have promised today’s workers Social Security and Medicare benefits totaling another $41 trillion. Toss in another trillion for miscellaneous expenses, and suddenly our debt skyrockets to $54 trillion. In layman’s terms it means in order to pay our future obligations we would need $54 trillion dollars invested today. How much of that money does this nation have sitting around? Zip! Zero! Zilch!
The next politician that proposes to solve this problem by cutting waste should be laughed out of office. The truth is that the result of our addiction is so severe that we could end ear marks, allow the Bush tax-cuts to expire and end the war in Iraq and still be some distance from solving this nation’s fiscal crisis.
How serious is it? At the rate we are spending entitlement expenditures will represent a full ¾ of our federal budget by the year 2030. A decade later – when today’s college students begin to retire—our debt will have risen to 244% of GDP. This nation will be so broke that we will only be able to service our public debt and pay out some social security and Medicare benefits. All other parts of the government will be shut down.
What does the wino do when he has consumed all his wine? He begs others for theirs. Rather than a world leader– we will be a nation at the behest of others. Rather than a strong and secure people– we will be a nation, to paraphrase the bard, whose hearts will shake at every feeble rumor and whose enemies, with the nodding of their plumes will fan us into despair.
Clearly something must be done. I mean besides immediately instituting government health care.
On Thursday President Obama announced the creation of a deficit commission charged with rooting out ways to restore fiscal discipline to Washington. This announcement came on the heels of the President’s announcement of a $3.8 trillion budget, which anticipates — by their own accounting — a $1.6 trillion deficit. It has been reported that in certain parts of Brooklyn and in a particular household in Los Angeles it was shouted, “I’ve got your deficit commission right here!”
Chairing the bi-partisan commission will be former senate Republican leader Alan Simpson and former Clinton advisor Erskine Bowles. The president betrayed his lack of seriousness when he let slip that he expects the commission to find a way to “pay for ALL FEDERAL PROGRAMS.” (Emphasis mine)
In bringing down the deficit and reducing our national debt there are truly only two choices: either we stop spending or we raise taxes(there is also the option of both raising taxes and increasing spending favored by many on the new left or that favored by the GOP: cutting taxes while raising spending.) Our addiction makes it unlikely that we will do away with federal programs and entitlements; recent attempts to reform Social Security, for example, were met with a stone wall. And because cutting spending often means offending constituents, the solution most favored by politicians on both the left and right is that of raising taxes.
In order to keep up with our addiction we will have to double our federal tax rate across the board. It won’t be as easy as laying the burden at the feet of “the wealthy” or those making over $250 thousand per year. There simply aren’t enough people making that much money to pay for all the spending. The burden will be borne by everyone. On the bright side the increase in taxes will mean that businesses will stop hiring so a lot of folks will not have to pay the higher taxes because they will not have earned any income.
Commissions made up of Democratic fools and Republican lackeys do not automatically make for good policy prescriptions. I dare say it was some brilliant commission that is responsible for creating the mess we currently find ourselves in. The truth is that we do not yet know which congressmen will make up the body of this commission; no doubt they are all grand fellows. However unless they begin their task with a discussion on taming the $54 trillion dollar beast that awaits the next generation– none of them is serious. They are, as Curtis Mayfield sang, simply “your pusher man.”
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42 Comments
Ok. So, how exactly are we paying for our two current wars? Moreover, if the US decides to go to war with Iran, would you support raising some taxes to pay for that?
For 8 years we heard Bush compared with H i t l e r because he "took the Clinton surplus and turned it into a deficit." Now along comes Obama and triples it. Hmm, so I guess the problem liberals had with the deficit was that it wasn't big enough?
Well the other option if November fails us miserably leave the great USA.
Our failure this November could be all Congress needs to tackle the immigration issue. They may finally close the border. They won't be keeping immigrants out though. No no no. They will be trying to keep highly productive highly mobile Americans from leaving. You don't think some of us will stick around to pay for this mess do you.
Hmmm. Let's see. Who makes good wine? (wink)
Good article Mr. Phillips.
"And here we encounter the seeds of government disaster and collapse — the kind that wrecked ancient Rome and every other civilization that allowed a sociopolitical monster called the welfare state to exist."
~ Barry Goldwater ~
First off what many fail to understand is how much Government Revenues are dependent on a robust and expanding economy. Too many tax measures stifle this growth and actually lower total revenues collected. Income taxes are not paid by about 50% or more of working Americans. This is wrong on many levels but the most important thing is that if you don't ante up you do not care what the stakes are.
There are two completely different problems and they need to be addressed differently. First problem is we are spending too much. I say first problem because we have solved revenue issues before but the spending continues. This can only be solved by first reducing the scope of those unfunded liabilities. Promises were made but they will not be able to be kept, at least not in the way promised.
No, but I'd certainly support cutting off welfare payments to deadbeats and firing a bunch of useless bureaucrats to pay for it.
Christ, are you innumerate? You really think that the $100B/year war "bill" is a patch on Obamalosi's insane spending spree on pork and worthless crap? The "too expensive" F-22 program could have been funded with just the *supplemental* appropriation tacked on (in 48 hrs) to the Cash For Clunkers idiocy.
Yes, they do. But play again!
Tytler's Law:
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, followed always by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”
– Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee (1747-1813)
Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security all need overhauls. Higher co-payments in Medicare/Medicaid to help prevent unwarrented use. Outright suspension and means testing etc. need to be used as well.
We also have to be serious about reducing the size of Government by turining over to Private Enterprise as many Government Services as possible. We cannot afford the Government payroll.
Tax overhaul is next. Income tax burdens need to be spread across the entire working population so everyone has a stake in the game. Corperate taxes need to be lowered to levels that are competitive with the rest of the world. Right now we have some of the highest Corperate Tax Rates. Targeted Tax Cuts need to stop because they favor one group over another.
In summary unless we address spending first we will only repeat the mistakes of the past. If we can get spending under control and then grow the economy we will have huge surpluses that can be used to pay down the debt and possibly eliminate it in less than 15 years. I know it sounds like a pipe dream but it is really possible.
Again. If the US decides to declare war on Iran, how exactly do you plan on funding it?
'Democracy is a very bad form of government. But all the others are so much worse'- Voltaire…
And we are a Constitutional Republic with limited suffrage. NOT a democracy. Democracies invariably descend into chaos, anarchy- and then fascist oligarchies.
Remember that…
Great read Mr. Phillips, and dove tails nicely with Hannity’s show this evening featuring the movie “Generation Zero,” talking about exactly this with one difference, they claim 100 trillion in unfunded mandates. We are at the brink as a country, and our government will soon be insolvent, austerity will come by force.
Bohemond that’s mean, all the welfare scum want some of Barry’s stash.
At this point, incredibly, the Obama admin. and the majority party Democrats, have lost control of the agenda, the people are onto them and they continue to be in denial about being rejected.
No amount of kabuki theatre is gonna change that fact. People want sensible government, not radical transformation of the best country in the history of the world! They don't have a clue how detached they are from the people and it seems they are commiting political suicide, and that suits me just fine.
Except they tried to keep the CBO cost estmates down by delaying the benefits for years and imposing the new taxes immediately. Anyone remember the Catastrophic Care bill from the Clinton era? Repealed in 18 months.
If they can pass it at all, it will just make the reckoning worse in November. If the Senate Democrats filibuster repeal, that will be the issue that wipes them out in 2012. And the House can strangle the new bureaucracy in its crib by not funding it. I expect a lot of things will have funding cut, or eliminated, next year.
The current deficit ignores over $6 Trillion for F&F and another potential $4Trillion for FDIC and FHA. They lie and lie and lie, because if they don't there would be civil unrest. It's all a con game. We can't do anything anymore. So forget Iran; let them nuke the Middle East if they want . We have more serious problems here at home. Gas will go to $10, regardless of Iran. Buy gold guns and ammo, find a piece of land for food, stay away from populated areas. Am I some sort of nut.? No. I am a 3 degreed retired businessman who sees the writing on the wall, and it aint pretty.
This deficit commission is the usual Washington scam to make inaction look like action. If you want to see how simple it is to cut the deficit, check this out:
http://commentarama.blogspot.com/2010/02/suggesti...
And if you want to see something scary (seriously), then check out why the deficit has become dangerous to our national security and economy:
http://commentarama.blogspot.com/2010/02/obamas-d...
I read your article on the deficit being a national security threat. Wow. I'd heard that before, but I never knew how true that was. Pelosi, Ried and Obama should be impeached for that alone. Thanks for the info.
Amazingly, the origins and purpose of all this chaos are predicted and accounted for in the best selling, prophetic, political Conspiracy Thriller book, BLACK ROAD 2012, which I bought on amazon, and was a real goose-bumpy, totally absorbing ride: http://tinyurl.com/amazon-BLACK-ROAD-2012
Do your deficit figures during the Bush years include the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan. Do remember that the actual costs of the wars were deliberately kept OFF of the deficit figures to make the deficits look smaller than they actually were.
Obummer's commission is just another of his daily dog and pony shows. Like all good progressives/socialists, Obummer isn't happy unless he's spending through the roof into bankruptcy….and the lazy leeches in the gimme society continue to support the annointed one all the way. I'm still trying to figure out what jobs are being produced by the welfare community. Keep raising taxes on Obummer's so-called "wealthy" and they will shut down completely and tell those they would potentially hire to go straight to hell. And I think they should.
You're idiot. The cost of the the Afhgan war is $180 billion a year. The deficit is $1.8 trillion. That means that 90% of your buddy Obama's deficit is the result of his spending plans. . . not anything to do with war. Get some facts before you speak next time.
Thanks Mike. These are honestly scary numbers. When I wrote the article, i knew the numbers would be pretty, but I honestly didn't know they were this bad.
National defense is a Constitutional mandate to the Federal Government unlike social entitlements which I can find in there nowhere. Cut those and the worthless bureaucracies associated with them, and we've dropped about 2/3 of the Federal Budget right there. Think of sending all that money to pay down our debt instead.
Why would we go to war with Iran? All we have to do is approve of Israel bombing back to the stone age, heck they probably won't even wait or ask for our approval. Win-win.
You speak of the Fair Tax?
It's an attempt to cover over the promise not to raise taxes, too. I didn't want to do it, but this bi-partisan commission said I had to … I imagine there won't be any budget cuts recommended at all unless they're necessary ones like cutting the armed forces. /sarc
aharris, That's exactly what it is. Commissions are ways to avoid most hard choices, impose things you actually want but are afraid to ask for, and then to disclaim all responsibility. Check out the first article I link to. It's a little simplistic, but the math is sound (based on White House numbers), and see how easy it would be to wipe out this deficit. But that's not how they want to do it. They don't want to cut spending — they want to raise taxes.
So why not pull back all US troops back to US soil and use them only for defense of our homeland ? Then cut all ties with NATO immediately and let the whiny Europeans handle their own security. Same with Japan and Korea. Cut out all US troops and security commitments. These are all "rich" countries who should take care of themselves. Then completely eliminate many Depts that are not found in the Constitution and return power to the states: Eliminate the Depts of Education, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Environmental Protection commission, transportation, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Sally Mae, the Commerce dept (except for the dept of standards), dept of energy, etc.. We should be able to cut the govt in half and restore rights back to the states.
the need to provide Defense is clearly defined in the Constitution of the United States, so if the congress decides to attack Iran the mentally awake realize that funding is a moot point. However Nothing that Obama or his minions has proposed is addressed in the Constitution. If you were cognizant of anything beyond what morons like Jeananne Gerafellow and Obama spew you'd be asking "How does Obama plan to pay for his imbecilic spending spree?"
So why aren't you asking that question?
My suggestions for cutting the deficit:
FREEZE all spending right now. You want something, find money elsewhere.
CUT TAXES. Cut them almost down to nothing. cut income tax, cut sales tax. Institute a flat tax, and get rid of 75% of IRS employees and offices.
Slash federal employee salaries by half and cut benefits to match what the private sector typically has.
SLASH Congressional pay 75%-100%. These SOBs got us into this, and they should feel some pain for it.
Dismantle the NEA, the Dept of Education and other programs and departments not essential to national security. Stop paying UN dues; tell them to get lost and host their hate parties elsewhere.
Balance the budget each year. No more passing debt onto the next year.
It's a start.
Good read as usual Joseph.
Like Bohemond said, cut off welfare and fire useless bureaucrats. That would more than fund another couple of large wars, plus. I would also add burying any legislation that would cause more unnecessary spending… such as healthscare, useless jobs bills, etc.
You mean "Our Stash? Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark, come tax time!
Hear! Hear!,Joseph.
Loved the articles, Andrew, and very well written. The )o( 's CYA commission is a smokescreen and he is counting on the MSM to spread it as far and wide as possible. With your permission, I would like to direct a few nay-sayers to your posts. If your posts do not open their eyes, then Argentina in the 90's may just look like a walk in the park. I am hoping, however, that other countries holding those bonds realize that if the US falls, they will not be far behind.
Great list. I would add to that NO unions in government job markets. No more bail-outs of large corporations. No meddling in corporate ownership structure. Abolish Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac and never allow any such thing to be created again..
HoosierAd, I'm glad you like them! Sure, please refer anyone you want you. Ideas are for sharing!
As for the CYA commission and the MSM, you're absolutely right — it's a smokescreen. And if we don't actually take some action soon, we are facing some very serious problems. Argentina, unfortunately, is an excellent analogy. Very scary. Thanks for the comment.
The Federal Government:
President Bush, Senator Schumer, Senator Clinton, Representative Hall:
Dear Sir/Ma’am:
All of you once again must correct short sighted and criminal behavior in an effort to keep the financial ball rolling. "Enron" ended with the destruction of fortunes and lives in the crucible of prosecutions and the market place; by any measure anyone who voted to continue funding for GSE’s like Fannie and Freddie – knowing what you/they knew – should face the same fate – an orange jumpsuit with numbers on the back of it. This will not happen because the fox is not only guarding the hen house it is now pimping the hens.
The federal governments continual desire to set up unattainable high minded and unaffordable goals is astonishing to me. Please tell me if all the damned laws you passed prior to the one you are about to pass didn’t amount to a hill of beans why do you believe this one will? The US spends 1/3 more than it takes in every year and that proportion will grow algorithmically as the years pass. We owe 10 Trillion Dollars now; 2 to 3 billion more per day. Our entire economy is 14 Trillion Dollars. In short order we will be upside down just like when you buy a car for too much money. If any of us ran our business like you people run the government we would be out of business or in jail.
I pay taxes to support my Country not to condone stupidity. Any of you who vote for this will go down in history as largest cabal of morons ever to set foot on planet earth. I know that is not a real stretch for some of you – but for crying out loud enough already!
Respectfully,
Once we shifted to popular elections of Senators our Constitutional Republic came to an end.
you are absolutely correct- well done!…
The balance of power Madison envisaged had state appointed Senators, free from the encumberances of campaign politics, answerable to the Governors who answered to the people as a firewall.
As you correctly point out that ended in the late 1800's. Now you have an Imperial Senate; with a six year cycle answerable to no one, and detatched from the states which they serve.
Any constitutional convention MUST address that…
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