Posted on 06/05/2011 5:32:07 PM PDT by MontaniSemperLiberi
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner did little to convince freshman GOP lawmakers of the newfound urgency of raising the debt ceiling on Thursday.
House freshman lawmakers who attended the late day bicameral closed-door meeting said that Geithner’s refusal to present a “scorable” plan that would reduce the deficit in exchange for a must-pass debt limit increase, left many feeling frustrated.
Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), who sat through most of the hour-long meeting, told The Hill that Geithner said “absolutely nothing” to convince him of the urgent need to increase the current $14.3 trillion limit by the August 2 deadline.
If Congress does not raise the borrowing authority for the Treasury secretary by August, Chabot predicted that “we’ll have to reduce the level of spending, which I’m in favor of.”
“It just looks to me like we’re moving towards that [deadline], and the administration just assumes that we’re going to raise it, and they’re sure not going to do it with Republican votes in the House unless there was dramatic changes in the level of spending. And I don’t see this White House being willing to compromise on that,” Chabot said.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
The only cash flow Geithner, Obama, etc. understand is more.......as in, regardless of what the cash situation is, they need/want more.
If they cut enough there is no need to raise the limit.
When I took a lower paying job, we adjusted spending to maintain positive cash flow. The government can do the same. All it takes is prioritization of spending and elimination of unnecessary spending.
I suspect if you picked 20 citizens at random and gave them the opportunity to balance the budget it would only take a few hours. I took a stab at it myself and it took less than an hour to cut 1.6 trillion.
You got it! When I lost my job, then weeks later the wife lost hers we canceled the cable, sold both cars for about what we owed on them and replaced them with cars we paid cash for. We went from full coverage to liability and saved 200 a month on insurance (both of our cars book out less than 2000 dollars) we down graded or internet from 12 meg to 1.5 and didn’t really notice a difference other than the size of the bill. We stopped eating out and got a propane grill for free off craigs list. Now “eating out” means we grill and eat at the table outside. We also have yet to turn on the a/c, we cut way way back on our cell phone plan and moved out of the 1500 dollar a month rental and in to a paid for mobile home with lot rent under 500 dollars.
We’re both working again (me for myself, her for a major retailer) but our spending habits have not changed. We’re worried some day we might end up right where we where before.
I went through that exercise. It was fairly quick. I came up with a #0% cut to SS, Medicare, and Military. Plus 50% cuts in everything else along with eliminating a few agencies.
I don’t think most Americans are ready for that.
I know, its not that hard.
I think, starting with Zero, each level of government appoints people of lesser intelligence to make themselves look better. It is not limited to just the cabinet level. Look at all the high level suck ups. They are either obvious morons or highly degreed academic idiots. How do I know ... they move their lips!
A BTT and thanks for the graphics.
Ok. All expenditures relating to the former Departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Labor. Most of the functions provided by these departments should be performed by the states. In addition, Medicaid should be eliminated as it is a state function. NASA should be eliminated as a separate entity (functions reassigned to Defense, Commerce, etc. on a scaled down basis). All SS Disability and related Medicare beneficiaries should be re-evaluated and re-certified by panels of 3 doctors. And this is only the beginning!
Where did you find a budget detailed enough to work with ? Do you have a link ?
That is not detailed enough to use for any sort of budget cutting. And it is criminal that they lump Medicaid in with Medicare — people contribute to Medicare all their working lives, while Medicaid is simply welfare.
geitner is a retard
SS and Defense have to be cut too.
If you eliminate Medicaid as a federal function, then you cut the program in half. 60 million people are on Medicaid. It would never fly. The political will doesn't exist to make those kinds of cuts. When you combine the entitlement programs, debt servicing costs, and other mandatories like food stamps, unemployment etc. you effectively has spent all of the revenue leaving everything else including DOD.
The stuff you are proposing would never pass. Whoever voted for them would be kicked out of office. If you can't be somewhat realistic about what needs to done, then it really is a worthless exercise. There is no way we can balance the budget in one year.
It is detailed enough to show that the entitlement programs, other mandatories, and debt servicing costs consume almost all the tax revenue. We borrow 41 cents of every federal dollar spent. We didn't get into this situation overnight and we won't get out quickly. There has to be a long term plan that bends the spending arc and gets us on a path to a balanced budget. It is going to be painful, but if anyone things that it can be done in a year then they are nuts. The people will not tolerate or support such cuts. They will be in the streets like in Greece. Ryan has laid out a pretty good roadmap.
You don’t think it’s a little misleading to show $793B in combined Medicare and Medicaid, but not show that only $460B of it is actually Medicare (http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/TRSUM/index.html) and therefor the other $333B is pure welfare ?
See, I think it’s important. When people say “let’s eliminate all welfare programs”, Medicaid represents $333B that can be cut immediately, while Medicare can only be tweaked over a number of years.
From your charts, I can’t tell how much is spent on HUD, FoodStamps, TANF, Crop Subsidies, Flood Insurance, and all the other programs for freeloaders.
I also can’t tell how much of the $689B for DOD is for current and retired troops — which I think should be inviolable — and how much is for bases in South Korea, Japan, Philipines, Germany, etc. — which I might opt to close unless the host country is willing to pay their costs. I seem to remember Glenn Beck coming up with $300B in DOD cuts and I’d like to see all the numbers to see how many I’d agree with.
You see, without the details I don’t buy the “it can’t be done all in one year” argument. Any serious attempt to eliminate the deficit needs the line items involved. Pretending the budget only has SIX categories of spending and labeling them “Mandatory”,”SS”,”Medicare”, etc. is a ploy to shut down discussion of cutting.
You are right, it is the same reason the best looking girl in the school hangs around with girls that are three levels below her.
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