Posted on 01/06/2010 5:50:20 AM PST by reaganaut1
President Obama is making final decisions on his budget for next year and is still promising to outline a path to substantially lower federal deficits. But on nearly every front, that goal has gotten harder since his first budget a year ago.
...
Meanwhile, the biggest tool usually employed to chisel away at projected deficits — shaving Medicare payments to health care providers — is already being used to offset the costs of overhauling the health care system.
At the same time, the persistently high unemployment rate has intensified the pressure on the White House and Congress to not emphasize deficit reduction so much that they risk undercutting the already sluggish recovery or even tipping the economy back into recession. In February, Mr. Obama must submit his budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
...
Moreover, the party is somewhat split over how aggressively to pursue deficit reduction, with many liberals warning that fiscal contraction could set off a double-dip recession as well as crimp their agenda.
While Mr. Obama has few budget decisions left, administration officials say, those decisions are “weighty,” as one put it.
The intensity of his struggles to show lower deficits over the next decade is captured by one idea that was considered and apparently shelved.
With most Bush tax cuts scheduled to expire at the end of this year, some officials, including Mr. Obama’s budget director, Peter R. Orszag, suggested that instead of permanently extending the cuts for all but the richest Americans — as the president has long promised — Mr. Obama could instead propose to extend them a year or two, arguing that further action would await the recommendations of a bipartisan budget commission that leading Senate Democrats want to create.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
When my bank account is empty,
I STOP SPENDING!
All of this deficit trimming talk is just that, talk. The Government can’t borrow money fast enough as it is, just for day to day expenses, and it won’t take a whole lot of anything to push the dollar right off of a cliff. One natural disaster could well be enough to trigger a full blown economic collapse st this point.
The US Government owes so much money that in order to pay it back Earth would have to be hit with a solid gold asteroid, that unfortunately would have to be big enough that it would wipe out all life on the planet (including bacteria, politicians, and other lower life forms...)
The Treasury just lifted the cap on how much money Freddie and Fannie can receive, which is an ill omen all by itself. The Government now owns 56% of GMAC and there is no end in sight to how much money we will continue to pour into that black hole as well.
The real unemployment rate is well above 20% as it stands right now, and there is no telling how much higher that will climb. No true economic recovery is possible with a quarter of the work force sitting on their hands, and over half the States are in deep trouble covering extended unemployment benefits.
Trim the deficit?? Not with this crew in office...
“There are unfortunately no politically painless ways to cut the deficit. Virtually all the low-hanging fruit has already been picked.”
Well as long as the political elite "leadership" of both major parties remain more committed to the global economy than the best interests of our own citizens, there isn't.
It really doesn't matter which Party is in power...
Despite their superficial bickering, they both embrace an economic model for America that is based on a growing Service Sector that borrows money so it can continue to consume more than it produces.
(And all that "stimulus" money that we borrowed just goes overseas as the "Trade Deficit" to create jobs in Mexico, China, Brazil where the stuff is actually made.)
And if you try to make some of that "stuff" here in the US, you have to be willing to work for Third World wages and benefits just like the illegals that Both Parties allow to flood across our borders.
Which is why, sometime in the not too distant future, the American Middle class will not be able to pay the interest on the money it borrowed to buy "cheap" imported crap at WalMart.
If you look at tax code (Im a CPA not in public practice anymore) use to be most phaseouts etc use to be 75k single 150 family.
WHo knows.
What he doesn't realize is that raising taxes (rates) on an already anemic economy will further choke it...and, in the end, produce even fewer tax revenues.
Obama reminds me of the proverbial inexperienced accountant who advises management that the way to increase profit is to cut the quality (and cost) of product ingredients and cut sales commissions.
Of course, both those measure would cut costs and would result in greater profits in a completely linear world...but the world is not flat and reducing product quality and cutting commissions to salesmen will have an immediate negative effect on sales.
Good luck, Barky!
Too bad you didn't get some experience before seeking the most complicated job in the nation.
NYSlimes still pretending that tax cuts don’t bring MORE money to the treasury.
LLS
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