NYT: The Truth About the Deficit

[Elmore Furth]

Both Presidents Bush and Obama spent hundred of billions of dollars in bailout funds avoid an economic meltdown. Obama continues to spend billions on Iraq and Afghanistan policies he is forced to continue. Entitlement programs, including the unfunded drug benefit to the elderly the Republicans started, continue to be charged to Obama's deficit numbers.

But now the GOP, the party of 'Just Say No,' refuses to fund a bipartisan deficit reduction commission that they themselves proposed and cosponsored.

It appears the 'dog in the manger' party is employing obstructionism, holding the government hostage to prevent any program that does not further their political agenda.

If we don't raise taxes, means test retirement entitlement programs and quit providing welfare for the rich, the state and federal governments will grind to a halt.

When the White House released its new budget last week, including more spending to create desperately needed jobs, Republican leaders in Congress denounced President Obama for driving up the deficit and demanded that the Democrats halt their “reckless” ways.

The deficit numbers — a projected $1.3 trillion in fiscal 2011 alone — are breathtaking. What is even more breathtaking is the Republicans’ cynical refusal to acknowledge that the country would never have gotten into so deep a hole if President George W. Bush and the Republican-led Congress had not spent years slashing taxes — mainly on the wealthy — and spending with far too little restraint. Unfortunately, the problem does not stop there.

The Republican amnesia and posturing are playing well on the hustings, where Americans are deeply anxious about the economy and fearful of losing their jobs and homes. Far too many Democratic lawmakers are losing their nerve.

By the time Mr. Bush left office in early 2009, the government had run big deficits for seven straight years, and the economy was on the brink of another Great Depression. On Jan. 7, 2009 — two weeks before Mr. Obama was inaugurated — the Congressional Budget Office issued new budget estimates showing a fiscal year 2009 deficit of well over $1 trillion.
The Truth About the Deficit

[truedelphi]

1. Obama was not forced to continue the wars - he had an out.

he could have used the same "out" that Sanders of Vermont used in not voting for any more war monies for Afghanistan - we simply cannot afford these wars!

Also, he was not forced to ignore one of his most important campaign promises - which was his pledge taht early in his first year, he would carefully examine what was occurring with the BailOut monies for the Too Big To Fail Crowd. And that if the Too Big Too Fail crowd was not using the money in a way that benefitted Main Street, he woul dstep in immediately and see toit that the rules were put in place for MAin Street to get what they needed.

Instead by April of 2009, Obama came out with his new meme - "I was sobusy when I was running for office that i did not pay attention to economic issues, and I really ahve to put thsoe issues into other people's hands as I don't understand them."

FLAT OUT FIB! (too put it kindly - he gave full disclosures of his quite able analysis of the economic needs of the nation in late 2008. Does he suffer from amnnesia? Does he not know that we have the internets and the Google and the You Tubes to show us exactly what he said back then?)

[Elmore Furth]

2. Budget fixes are simple -- and unthinkable

In December 44% of respondents in the Gallup Poll wanted Bush back as President.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/gallup-poll-44-percent-of-americans-want-bush-back.html

McCain received 46% of the total votes in the 2008 election.

http://www.slate.com/id/2220803/

I think it's a little naive to think that Obama can deviate far from Bush policies that were popular and expect voter or Congressional support.

If you take those three things -- health care, middle class entitlements and taxes -- we have effectively solved America's budget crisis. So the good news here is that we have a $14 trillion economy.

There's more than enough money to have a very substantial federal budget, moderate taxes (we are still at the low end of the industrialized world in terms of taxes as a percentage of GDP). So it really is worth thinking about how strange it is, that a fairly sensible set of discreet measures could put us back into a situation where we would be the envy of the world in terms of our fiscal condition.

The steps I outlined are economically simple and sensible and yet they're political dynamite.

If we were to raise the retirement age on Social Security, modestly and on a sliding scale so that it was phased in. If we were to trim the benefits very slightly ... the program would be solvent for the next 75 years. And yet think about it. That simple commonsensical fix is politically absolutely impossible in Washington today...It's almost that the entire strategy now is how can we take any proposal that anyone makes and turn it into a fundraising opportunity for our extreme wing.



Budget fixes are simple -- and unthinkable

[Bennyboy]

3. K &R...

Great ammo...