Something Stinks…Oh It’s Obama’s Budget

President Barack Obama is sending Congress a $3.77 trillion spending blueprint that seeks to achieve an elusive “grand bargain” to tame runaway deficits by raising taxes further on the wealthy and trimming popular benefit programs such as Social Security.

So what if we’re $17 Trillion in Debt, let’s Spend even more!!

It projects that the deficit for the 2014 budget year, which begins Oct. 1, would fall to $744 billion. That would be the lowest gap between spending and revenue since 2008.

Wow! We’d overspend money we don’t have less than we have in the last 5 years! Wow! I’m impressed!! 🙂

Instead of ten hits of crack a day we’ll just do 7!!

WOW! that’s amazing. Whattaguy! 🙂

Oh, and we raise even more taxes so we can overspend!

Impressive!

Just over a week after sequestration took effect, the State Department allotted more than $700,000 for gardening at a U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Brussels, Belgium. 🙂

total deficit savings to $4.3 trillion (over ten years), based on the administration’s calculations.

WOW! He only overspends that much in 3 Months!!! What about the other 9?

Oh, right, TAX INCREASES!

No Tax & Spend Democrats here… 🙂

But instead of moving Congress nearer a grand bargain, Obama’s proposals so far have managed to anger both Republicans, who are upset by higher taxes, and Democrats upset with cuts to Social Security benefits.

Which is why it’s just political, not economic, as usual. Wonder how the Ministry of Truth is going to spin cuts to Social Security? 🙂

The CBO also notes, however – and the White House omits – that a switch to the chained CPI  (for Social Security) will also raise more than $124 billion in new tax revenues.

The money will come pouring in because the consumer price index also controls income tax brackets, tax filers’ standard deductions, nontaxable contribution limits for 401(k) retirement plans, and more.

So millions of individual Americans will see themselves moved involuntarily to higher tax brackets, and middle-class taxpayers in particular will lose some of the tax credits and deductions that they count on.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney conceded as much during an April 5 briefing, when CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett asked if it would ‘raise taxes on middle-income Americans.’

‘I’m not disputing that,’ Carney said, adding that ‘it is not the president’s ideal policy.’

The president’s spending and tax plan is two months late.

It must be all that partying, vacations, and golf!

The budget proposes cutting $400 billion from Medicare and other health care programs over a decade. The cuts would come in a variety of ways, including negotiating better prescription drug prices and asking wealthy seniors to pay more.

Sticking it to Grandma? How dare he! 🙂

In the tax area, Obama would raise an additional $580 billion by restricting deductions for the top 2 percent of family incomes. The budget would also implement the “Buffett Rule” requiring that households with incomes of more than $1 million pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes. Charitable giving would be excluded.

So this leopard still has all his spots! Gee, what a shocker that is…

As part of the administration’s effort to win over Republicans, Obama will have a private dinner at the White House with about a dozen GOP senators Wednesday night (Wine, Dine, & Bribe). The budget is expected to be a primary topic, along with proposed legislation dealing with gun control and immigration.

But White Hours Tours for the little people who will get stuck with the check?

Sorry, Charlie, you’re still a peasant and you still stink.

‘Every new initiative in the plan is fully paid for, so they do not add a single dime to the deficit,’ the White House pledges.

FactCheck.org, a program of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Policy Center, reported in February that Obama’s total sum included about $600 billion, however, in new taxes – not spending reductions. It also included $500 billion in reductions of the amount the federal government planned to pay in future interest on its debts.

Only about $1.4 trillion consisted of actual spending cuts – or at least what Washington wonks call spending cuts.

After all, reductions in the INCREASE in spending is considered a “cut” these days in Washington! 🙂

So Obama will have them fighting each other then President Fiat can just step in an do whatever he wants “for the good” of all his subjects. 🙂

After all, if this whole thing fails miserably, and the fighting gets very nasty hen will Eloquently and Arrogantly stand above the fray and proclaim  it wasn’t  HIS fault! 🙂

THE AGENDA IS THE AGENDA.

 

 

 

 

 

The Gauntlet is Thrown Down

The United States will hit the legal limit on its ability to borrow no later than May 16, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Monday, ramping up pressure on Congress to act to avoid a debt default.

But, according to the Democrats “we ain’t broke” 🙂

Previously, the Treasury had forecast that the $14.3 trillion statutory debt limit would be reached between April 15 and May 31. As of Friday, Treasury borrowing stood just $95 billion from the ceiling.

The debt-limit showdown comes as Congress struggles to complete a spending package that would keep the government operating beyond Friday.

Republicans are seeking to use that bill to enact deep spending cuts and lawmakers are focusing on a proposal to trim this year’s budget by $33 billion, a relatively small amount compared with a projected $1.4 trillion deficit.

Some lawmakers have called for legislation to force the Treasury to first pay interest on U.S. bonds before other obligations, such as unemployment benefits and Social Security and Medicare payments, as a way to stave off a debt default. (KFYI)

But don’t worry, you’re “heartless” according to Democrats if you cut $20 billion dollars from this year’s budget! 😦

The Republican budget proposal will eliminate the national debt while still preserving costly entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security, Rep. Paul Ryan told CNBC.

Speaking just hours before the spending plan gets its formal introduction before Congress, Ryan, head of the House Budget Committee, said the debt will peak at 74.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2014 and then drop from there.

“We’ve got to show the country that we can get this situation under control and grow the economy, and that’s what we’re doing,” he said. “So whether (Democratic Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid is willing to pass this bill or Barack Obama is ready to sign it, I don’t know the answer to that question.

“What I do know is I can’t look my kids and my constituents in the eyes with my conscience being clear and not know that I didn’t do everything I could to try and fix this problem before it got out of control.”

Among the key tenets in a budget resolution to be presented are fundamental changes to the way Medicare and Medicaid are financed. The resolution forestalls action on Social Security, though Ryan said he expects a bipartisan agreement on that issue later this year.

More broadly, the plan contains provisions that Ryan has said will slash $4 trillion from federal spending over the next decade.

The resolution is necessary as a potential shutdown looms over Washington and Congress must approve raising the national debt limit.

Ryan acknowledged the political obstacles he will face both from Democrats and some members of this own party who may bristle at the aggressive spending cuts involved.

“The problem in Washington is, they take any honest and sincere attempt to fix this problem and use it as a political weapon against you in the next election,” he said. “We can’t let that deter us.”

Budget: Republicans are set to unveil common-sense changes to entitlements that cut spending $4 trillion over the next decade and start to restore our fiscal health. Predictably, do-nothing Democrats call them “extremist.”

But who’s the real extremist here? The one who recognizes that $10 trillion-plus in expected deficits over the next 10 years is a serious problem? Or those who insist there’s no budget problem so bad that more spending and a massive tax hike on all Americans can’t fix it?

Truth is, our long-term fiscal problem is so severe that, absent immediate corrective action, our country’s political and economic future is imperiled.

By the Social Security and Medicare Trustees’ own estimates, we are running headlong into a fiscal tsunami. All told, the government’s entitlement accountants say, we have roughly $107 trillion in unfunded liabilities — $340,836 and change for every American alive today.

Even if you’re generous and reduce that by the amount of assets the government has, the future red ink at the end of the 2010 fiscal year was still about $57 trillion — $7 trillion for federal pensions, $17 trillion for Social Security, $22 trillion for Medicare, and about $11 trillion or so in debt. That’s $481,000 for every U.S. household.

For Democrats to refuse to cut spending in the face of such numbers is the definition of “extremist.”

The fiscal cancer is growing fast. As the chart shows, based on estimates from the Government Accountability Office, spending on entitlements and interest on our debts will soar from just 11% of GDP this year to over half of our economy by 2065.

That means that, in that year, children born today will see 50 cents of every dollar they earn turned over to the government to pay for retirees’ benefits. As intolerable as that is, today’s Democrats have chosen to ignore it, screaming instead about “Wall Street” bailouts and “taxing the rich.”

Unfortunately, the Democrats’ panacea of higher taxes will sink the economy. Just to pay for Social Security and Medicare would require a near tripling of the current tax rate of 15.3% by the middle of the century.

Americans would be slowly bankrupted by such policies — and so would the government.

In that context, House Budget Committee chief Paul Ryan proposes $4 trillion in cuts. Extreme? Even if he cut $6 trillion, our national debt would still rise. Faced with $10 trillion in deficits, $4 trillion is just a modest start. Now we’ll see who the real extremists are. (IBD)

We already know who the Liberal Media and the Democrats will blame: The Tea Party and The Republicans.

What Ryan wanted,Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) declared, is “to protect tax breaks for millionaires, oil companies and other big money special interests, while slashing our investment in education, ending the current health guarantee for seniors on Medicare, and denying health care to tens of millions of Americans.”

The Talking Points are set. Now it’s time for 24/7 Mainstream Ministry of Truth Media’s  constant drumming of them.

Andy Griffith will be dusted off again.

So get ready for EVEN MORE demagoguery of my excuse list (see 2 days ago).

After all, we aren’t broke. And if it ain’t broke the Democrats don’t want to fix it. 🙂

Obama’s Tough Choices…seriously?…

President Obama’s 2012 budget will be roughly $3,800,000 million ($3.8 trillion).

The anticipated 2012 budget deficit will be $1,500,000 million ($1.5 trillion). (for the Third Year in a Row!!) This means we are borrowing that amount from our children to fund all of the Democrats’ Utopian spending programs.

Finally, the president has proposed “tough budget cuts” that total $775 million.

No, that’s not a joke. Unfortunately.

Let’s illustrate the magnitude of Obama’s cuts.

CAN YOU SEE IT?? if you can, you have super vision!

Obama’s cuts aren’t even visible in this chart. Let’s zoom in.

Blowing it up about ten times allows us to see a tiny little sliver: those are the cuts.

See it now, that little tiny sliver? Still need Superman’s vision to see it?
Blowing the chart up a further ten times still barely exposes Obama’s proposed cuts.

…Lew said that the Valentine’s Day budget will proposed cutting in half community service block grants to grassroots groups in poor communities… He said “this cut is not easy for” Obama.

Not easy.

Our country’s going bankrupt and he can’t find anything to cut.

These Democrats are so far off the reservation that there’s really no hope left for them as a political party. This degree of dishonesty and wanton fiscal destruction must be rewarded with political obliteration.

And just to add Insult to Injury

The Left’s favorite garbage-in garbage-out justifiers for ObamaCare, The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) testified to this , this week:

Testifying today before the House Budget Committee, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Doug Elmendorf confirmed that Obamacare is expected to reduce the number of jobs in the labor market by an estimated 800,000. Here are excerpts from the exchange:

Chairman [Paul] Ryan: “[I]t’s been argued…that the new health care law will create jobs and increase labor force participation. But if I recall from your analysis, it was quite the opposite. Is that not the case?”

Director [Douglas] Elmendorf : “Yes.”…

[…]

Rep. [John] Campbell: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, we’ll — and Dr. Elmendorf — and we’ll continue this conversation right now. First on health care, before I get to — before I get to broader issues, you just mentioned that you believe — or that in your estimate, that the health care law would reduce the labor used in the economy by about 1/2 of 1 percent, given that, I believe you say, there’s 160 million full-time people working in ’20-’21.  That means that, in your estimation, the health care law would reduce employment by 800,000 in ’20-’21. Is that correct?

Director Elmendorf: Yes. The way I would put it is that we do estimate, as you said, that…employment will be about 160 million by the end of the decade.  Half a percent of that is 800,000.

So anyone for Knives and bear skins? That’s all we’ll have if these idiots continue.

Economics 101:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8k1LeSwtCw&feature=player_embedded

Liberals must be defeated. Period. We can’t afford their idiocy anymore.

And anyone who mentions “tough choices” by the Democrats or the President feel free to laugh openly in their face!

DC Vs The States

I was going to do another Illegal Immigration blog, but I will save that outrage for another day.

I found this article by David Broder, no rightwing bomb-thrower or extreme Leftist he.

It points out that while Washington D.C can’t stop spending to save anyone’s lives, the States are cutting programs, services, and raising taxes like mad because they are forced to.

Most states, unlike Washington, are mandated to not run deficits in their budgets.

Most people do as well.

So they are slashing and burning everywhere.

Here in Arizona, our Governor, Jan Brewer, who was given the job after Janet Napalitano could see the iceberg coming and jumped ship before she had to do anything about it has been fighting about this since the day she was handed the office.

And the rancor has been fierce.

But they have to get it done.

Meanwhile, in D.C., they spend $4 Trillion in 14 months, and the CBO projects a nearly $25 Trillion Dollar Deficit by 2020, and the Democrats continue to spend.

They pass Pay-As-you-Go Legislation to put lipstick on the deficit pig and before the inks even dry they roast the pig.

They can’t help themselves.

It’s what they do.

That and endless obsess about how to run everyone else’s lives for them and the minutiae of political chess matches.

There is no discipline in D.C.

And they don’t want any.

There is enforced discipline on the States.

Which explains why the government always foists the mandates on the States.

They make them do it.

The States are the siblings who have to pick up the pieces that the Drunken,drugged out, abusive Parents in Washington everyone lives with.

So, on that note: David Broder (Washington Post):

There is a great divide in American politics. It’s not between Democrats and Republicans. It’s between the president and Congress in Washington, on one side, and governors and legislators around the country on the other.

The record of the Washington politicians is summarized in the report that came out of the Congressional Budget Office last week. That nonpartisan scorekeeper announced that it projects the cumulative national debt to increase in the next decade by $9.8 trillion.

That unimaginable (and indigestible) sum is more than a trillion dollars higher than the Obama administration’s estimate. It means a lower future standard of living for Americans because of vastly increased debt.

As Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the senior Republican on the House Budget Committee, pointed out in his commentary on the CBO report, it projects the annual cost of interest on the debt to rise from $209 billion this year to $916 billion by 2020.

Most of that debt is now held overseas by nations such as China and Japan, so we are draining huge sums from ourselves and handing them to others to use in buying us up — or competing against us.

That is the story that has been written and is still unfolding in Washington, with budgets shaped by both Democrats and Republicans. It is a saga of national ruin.

The state side of the story is told most clearly in another report this week, this one from the private Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Staff members Nicholas Johnson, Catherine Collins and Ashali Singham summarized systematically what I had heard anecdotally from many of the governors when they were here last month for their annual winter conference.

Less Spending, More Taxes

The Great Recession knocked state tax revenues down by $87 billion in the fiscal year that ended last September — an 11% decline that was the steepest on record.

In response, the first thing the states did was to cut spending. General fund outlays were reduced by 4% in fiscal 2009 and by another 4.8% in 2010 — even as Medicaid rolls swelled and other recession-related expenses climbed.

But the governors and legislators did not stop there. Two-thirds of the states, 33 of 50, also raised taxes last year, adding more than $30 billion in revenues.

Ten states hiked taxes enough to increase revenues by more than 5% over the previous year’s collections. This happened in California, Florida, Indiana and Nevada, which have Republican governors, as well as in Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina and Oregon, all governed by Democrats.
While the federal government was handing out tax rebates and now is preparing to extend many of the Bush-era tax cuts, 13 states were raising personal income taxes, 17 were passing sales tax and various business tax increases, and 22 were hiking excise taxes on tobacco, alcohol or gasoline.

California, with chronic budget problems, a Democratic-controlled Legislature and a Republican governor, bit the bullet and temporarily raised its income tax rate across the board and its sales tax by 1% and also lifted its vehicle tax.

It’s Different In D.C.

All the states except Vermont operate with a constitutional requirement that they balance their budgets. But I was reminded again during the governors’ conference how different the psychology is in the state capitals and in Washington.

Governors live in the real world, where budgets mean something more than a formula for shifting burdens to the next generation and where there is much less room for partisan game-playing.

Once again this year, Congress has passed a “pay-as-you-go” bill requiring it to make compensatory cuts whenever it increases appropriations for some worthy purpose. Then it turned right around and began waiving the requirement when circumstances pinched.

Discipline is visible in the states. It is still a stranger to Washington.

AMEN