Liberal Forum

Congressman Andy Biggs write in Townhall:

I opposed the last debt ceiling plan in the House because it raised the national debt by $1.5 trillion over a few months, but the deal that Speaker McCarthy has made with President Biden is an even bigger disaster.

The original bill that passed out of the House last month promised fiscal year 2022 spending levels with a savings of approximately $131 billion and rescissions of almost $900 billion. 

The McCarthy-Biden plan nets only $9 billion in savings and only $29 billion in rescissions. And there is the likelihood that the savings totally go away, and the bill indicates that $22 billion of the rescissions will be repurposed to get around the putative spending caps in the bill.

The McCarthy-Biden plan blows up the debt ceiling from the already outrageous national debt of $31.4 trillion to a more treacherous national debt of $36 trillion by January 1, 2025.

But the McCarthy-Biden deal is designed to fool you. Instead of estimating the actual dollar amount of the increase in our national debt that will happen before January 1, 2025, they simply say that there is no cap on the national debt until January 1, 2025. How much can they spend?

And while the current growth rate of our national debt projects to slightly more than $4 trillion in new debt by then, it could easily exceed $4 trillion. 

Let’s see here, the original House bill included elimination of all IRS funding for the new Gestapo agents who will be a weaponized IRS force. Total savings would have been $71 billion and no new agents to hassle Americans. The McCarthy-Biden proposal prevents hiring of the force next year--not permanently--for a savings of $2 billion. And, Republicans will have to fight to prevent the hiring of the agents a year from now! But, even that is disingenuous as the $71 billion has already been preauthorized, which means that the money is there to hire IRS agents this year.The original House bill included rescissions of Green New Deal tax credits and subsidies, which largely benefit rich individuals and corporations--Bill Gates is one of the biggest recipients rumored to be eligible for $1 billion in benefits--for a savings of more than $200 billion. The McCarthy-Biden plan continues the Green New Deal boondoggles.

The House bill originally eliminated Biden’s student loan forgiveness and restructuring plan for a projected savings of more than $400 billion. The McCarthy-Biden deal doesn’t.

The spending levels frozen at 2022 rates in the original House legislation are modified up.

And, Republican members of Congress are told that we will fight these issues again next year. In the meantime, the McCarthy-Biden plan assures an increase in the national debt by more than $4 trillion. 

How come Republican leaders always tell us that next year we’ll fight hard…we really mean it!?

In fairness, the McCarthy-Biden plan asserts something that they call “Administrative Pay-Go.” It ostensibly will require bureaucrats to demonstrate how they will pay for new programs or increases in spending. Sounds good, right, except Congress has had a similar program for many years without it slowing down our spending. Why? Because Congress waives the “pay-go” provisions, as it will no doubt do in the “Administrative Pay-Go” process. Look for a failure here as well.

And the craziest part of the “Administrative Pay-Go” is that the Director of the OMB can waive the pay-go provisions whenever and for whatever reason. No wonder that the Biden Administration has no concern over this provision.

 
 

And that unicorn, the “Administrative Pay-Go”, is where most of the McCarthy-Biden savings of $1.5 trillion. Since that is ephemeral at best, the McCarthy-Biden savings evaporate.

Another point that the McCarthy-Biden coalition supports disincentivizes the commitment to pass 12 appropriation bills as promised in January. It automatically creates a continuing resolution if a budget package is not passed by the close of the fiscal year in September. But, this doesn’t even take effect until 3 months into the next fiscal year, and is based on the raised spending levels. 

When Republican leaders put out their talking points they said that the Democrats got nothing in this deal. (They apparently forgot about the $4 trillion increase in the spending cap).

As Progressive Democrat Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) has stated: “It doesn’t cut spending and doesn’t reduce the deficit.”

The McCarthy-Biden proposal doesn’t stop, or even slow down, deficit spending. 

The McCarthy-Biden proposal doesn’t reduce the angle of trajectory of our out-of-control growth of our nation’s debt.

The McCarthy-Biden proposal doesn’t bend the spending curve down.

Instead, they put some curtains on a dilapidated budget house that will leave us with what Joe Biden wanted all along: an unsustainable, indefensible growth in our national debt. 

The McCarthy-Biden plan keeps us moving over the national debt cliff with the Republican leadership’s mantra of “We’ll fight harder next year!”

I thought the last plan wasn’t a good plan because it increased the national debt by $1.5 trillion in a few months, but who knew that the McCarthy-Biden team would produce an even more malodorous plan that will accelerate our nation’s debt, and consequently our economic demise?!
 

Buffalo » 02 Jun 2023, 6:45 am » wrote: ↑

02 Jun 2023, 6:45 am

Congressman Andy Biggs write in Townhall:

I opposed the last debt ceiling plan in the House because it raised the national debt by $1.5 trillion over a few months, but the deal that Speaker McCarthy has made with President Biden is an even bigger disaster.

The original bill that passed out of the House last month promised fiscal year 2022 spending levels with a savings of approximately $131 billion and rescissions of almost $900 billion. 


 

Ok, I get it, you don't like the compromise deal.  I don't either.  HOWEVER, I will admit that I cannot devise a strategy that does the following, given the Dems control the Senate, have the presidency and have just shy of half the House, which strategy:

• makes the Republicans look like the good guy as opposed to the bad guy
• does not enable Democrats to blame Republicans for shutting down the government, AND the the majority of the nation from blaming Republicans for doing it.
• Gives us a chance at picking up more Senate and House seats in 2024
• Gives us a thin prayer of regaining the Presidency in 2024.

If you do, I'd like to hear it.  But, play it out a little so I can see how you think the cogs will turn in our favor.
 
 

Skans » 02 Jun 2023, 7:38 am » wrote: ↑

02 Jun 2023, 7:38 am

Ok, I get it, you don't like the compromise deal.  I don't either.  HOWEVER, I will admit that I cannot devise a strategy that does the following, given the Dems control the Senate, have the presidency and have just shy of half the House, which strategy:

• makes the Republicans look like the good guy as opposed to the bad guy
• does not enable Democrats to blame Republicans for shutting down the government, AND the the majority of the nation from blaming Republicans for doing it.
• Gives us a chance at picking up more Senate and House seats in 2024
• Gives us a thin prayer of regaining the Presidency in 2024.

If you do, I'd like to hear it.  But, play it out a little so I can see how you think the cogs will turn in our favor.

None of the above!!!  As long as the dim-0-craps have the deep state and the lapdog, enemy of the people, lying, leftist, corporate controlled media nothing will change.  Even IF the repubs get the Senate, keep the House and win the Presidency in 2024 NOTHING will change.  The idiots in DC will keep spending the US into oblivion!!!  
There is but one political party in the US and that is the corporate party.  The dim-0-craps are merely its left arm and the repulsives are merely its right arm.

The sorry bastards that always talk  and threaten that SS will have to be cut should be shot.  I, and MILLIONS of other Americans worked our asses of and paid into that system for 45 **** years!!!

I say cut ALL corporate welfare (subsidies)m ,make lobbying illegal, cut military and stop spending $$TRILLIONS on endless unnecessary **** police actions all over the world that only serves to enrich those of the military industrial corporations.  

China is our most dangerous enemy and they spend onlya THIRD of what the US spends on defense and the Pentagon cannot accout for $TRILLIONS in spending and have NEVER been audited.

Cut out waste and fraud in the federal government and a $TRILLION a year of taxpayer money would be saved.

As it is, no matter which arm of the corporate party is in the majority in DC, the US is still headed for economic oblivion!!!
 

Another good one...A brutal truth that Congresses and Presidents have ignored by Mark Lewis: 

Growing up, I was taught that if I took something that didn't belong to me or I didn't earn, it was called "theft." That is what thieves do; they take things that don't belong to them with no intention of returning them. Some thieves might rationalize, "Oh, I'm just borrowing this; I'll return it someday." But they never do. What Congress is doing, in raising the "debt ceiling" for the umpteenth time, is nothing short of pure theft. They can say they are "borrowing" and will "pay it back someday." But they aren't; they can't and never will; they are stealing from you, me, and generations now and long into the future.

Permit me to give a simple example, and please refrain from arguing with details. It's just an example. Suppose my monthly income is $3,000, but I spend $5,000 monthly. After two years, I will be almost $50,000 in debt. What to do? "Ah," I say, "I will borrow the money." So, I borrow $100,000 to meet all my obligations. Now I am $150,000 in debt. I continue to spend $5,000 on my $3,000 income, and in two years, I am now about $200,000 in debt. What to do? "Ah," I say, "I will borrow the money to meet my obligations." So, I borrowed another $300,000. Now I am about $500,000 in debt. And I do this ad infinitum. And, of course, eventually, being unable to pay back the money that I "borrowed," I defaulted and filed for bankruptcy. I have done nothing but steal the money that was loaned to me. That is precisely what it was—theft. I took something that did not belong to me and used it for selfish purposes with no ability or intention of ever paying it back. Call it what it is—theft from somebody who trusted me to return what I borrowed from them. By the way, my name in this example is Sam Congress.

Obviously, my example does not conform to perfect reality, but you get the point. Congress spends and spends and spends until it is almost out of money and then "borrows" trillions more, claiming that someday it will pay it all back. What will the debt ceiling be now--$35 36 trillion? If they took every dime of every American living right now (not just "the rich"), they couldn't pay half that debt. So obviously, they are now "borrowing" (stealing because they will never pay it back) from our children, grandchildren, and beyond. They take the money now. They spend it on what THEY want to (useless wars around the world, etc.), and lie—flat out lie—to us and tell us that "someday it will be paid back." Some day. Kick the can down the road. After all, the current members are dead and gone. Let the next generation deal with the problem.

Incidentally, we know Congress is lying because they call this new theft "The Fiscal Responsibility Act." I guess thieves think they are being "fiscally responsible," too. At least they are paying for their drugs.

Given the nature of the American electorate over the past few generations, do we expect the next generation of voters to be smarter than we have been and hold Congress accountable to pay back the money it "borrowed"? Of course, most of us reading this will be dead, too, so it won't be our problem, either. Instead, we will be known to history as an utterly irresponsible generation for believing the lies our current Congress tells us. We know they are lying to us, and let them get away with it, anyway. How are we any better than they?

 
 

Kevin McCarthy should have said one thing: "NO!!! We are not raising the debt limit one-thin dime! Not only will we quit spending more money than we take in, but we are setting aside a substantial amount each month to pay the people we have previously borrowed from. No increase in the debt limit!"

That is what he should have said. That is what you and I must do. I can only spend more money every month than I receive; I can get away with it occasionally, in case of emergency, but I can only do that for a while. I must have more income than outgo. I can't continue to live off borrowed money. So I pay back borrowed money—or I default and file for bankruptcy. The latter might occasionally be unavoidable, but it is certainly the direction the American government is heading, and, in this case, is utterly inexcusable. These unconscionable thieves are making no serious effort to pay back what they are stealing from you, me, our children, grandchildren, ad infinitum. They never will. Let the next President and Speaker of the House deal with it. Or the one following them. Or the next. Until it all comes crashing down and destroys the American Republic.

Let me end this by quoting historian Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler from about 250 years ago: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse [money] 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, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage."

You don't end debt with more debt.
 

In other words.
America wins.
Republicans caved.
Democrats now own the whole shooting match.

Win,win,win!

 

Skans » 02 Jun 2023, 7:38 am » wrote: ↑

02 Jun 2023, 7:38 am

Ok, I get it, you don't like the compromise deal.  I don't either.  HOWEVER, I will admit that I cannot devise a strategy that does the following, given the Dems control the Senate, have the presidency and have just shy of half the House, which strategy:

• makes the Republicans look like the good guy as opposed to the bad guy
• does not enable Democrats to blame Republicans for shutting down the government, AND the the majority of the nation from blaming Republicans for doing it.
• Gives us a chance at picking up more Senate and House seats in 2024
• Gives us a thin prayer of regaining the Presidency in 2024.

If you do, I'd like to hear it.  But, play it out a little so I can see how you think the cogs will turn in our favor.

smoke, mirrors and perception are the only items available in a politician's toolbox...
 

Squatchman » 04 Jun 2023, 7:35 am » wrote: ↑

04 Jun 2023, 7:35 am

In other words.
America wins.
Republicans caved.
Democrats now own the whole shooting match.

Win,win,win!

so how does "amerika win"?

Buffalo » 03 Jun 2023, 8:09 am » wrote: ↑

03 Jun 2023, 8:09 am

Kevin McCarthy should have said one thing: "NO!!! We are not raising the debt limit one-thin dime! Not only will we quit spending more money than we take in, but we are setting aside a substantial amount each month to pay the people we have previously borrowed from. No increase in the debt limit!"

That is what he should have said. That is what you and I must do. I can only spend more money every month than I receive; I can get away with it occasionally, in case of emergency, but I can only do that for a while. I must have more income than outgo. I can't continue to live off borrowed money. So I pay back borrowed money—or I default and file for bankruptcy. The latter might occasionally be unavoidable, but it is certainly the direction the American government is heading, and, in this case, is utterly inexcusable. These unconscionable thieves are making no serious effort to pay back what they are stealing from you, me, our children, grandchildren, ad infinitum. They never will. Let the next President and Speaker of the House deal with it. Or the one following them. Or the next. Until it all comes crashing down and destroys the American Republic.

Let me end this by quoting historian Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler from about 250 years ago: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse [money] 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, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage."

You don't end debt with more debt.

It's only gonna go until the interest exceeds the income, then it's all gonna come crashing down...

what pisses me off is they accuse Americans of what they do...recommending people live within their means, then cry when record bankruptcies occur making laws to protect the healthcare and loan sharks (CC companies), IE impossible to file bankruptcy against..while banks holding real estate end up with the interest pd and eventually the property...