The Debt Deal's Three Biggest Winners and Losers

Fox News ^ | August 2, 2011 | John R. Lott Jr.

[JohnRLott]

With a debt ceiling agreement finally in place and the Senate on track to approve it today congratulations are being handed out all around.  Armageddon and catastrophe has supposedly been averted. And politicians are rushing to put the best face on the deal. 

Unfortunately, the new agreement does not accomplish as much as many had hoped, or as much as it should have, in terms of curbing spending and continued deficits. This explains why stock markets continued to fall despite the supposedly "good" news. The reason is because, once again, politicians are continuing to push the problem to the future. 

Here's a look at the winners and losers in the aftermath of the "catastrophe" that's just been averted: 

The Winners:

1. Stimulus Recipients and Big Government: President Obama’s “Stimulus” was supposed to just be temporary. Alas, the debt agreement locks in big government and the extra spending President Obama initiated will continue. . . .

[sport]

Armageddon and catastrophe has supposedly been averted.....

Bullshit! Both are now assured and the dates of both have been moved up exponentamently.

[dangus]

And why should we believe this guy???

No, I’m kidding. If you’re THE John Lott, I love your work. As a former liberal Democrat turned “right wing fanatic,” your economic analyses of gun control helped me embrace the second amendment. (I always supported the second amendment, but formerly merely out of a sense that it was constitutional law, not actually a *good* thing.)

[EGPWS]

The greatest winner was not listed....

0BAMA!

He NOW has a bottomless pit of money to fund his reelection.

[oldbrowser]

The spendaholics have won again. The taxpayers have lost again.
The #$&@*?# in Washington have kicked the can down the road once again.

[WOBBLY BOB]

What’s to say any new debt bill would be adhered to any way?

“Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act” of 1974
“Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act” of 1985
“Budget Enforcement Act” of 1990
“Balanced Budget Act” of 1997.
“Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999”
“Restoring Fiscal Discipline Act” of 2007

Yep, just one more bill ought to do it.

[rcrngroup]

The the biggest losers of all?

The American people and our once great nation, the USA. Piss on the Repukes like Boner & McConnell & establishment elitist Repukes who sold & betrayed the election of 2010 and the people who voted for these bastards. They have just handed a $2.4 TRILLION gift to the RAT bastard commie pic 0dumb0 and ensured his election in 2012. Plus they have killed any likelihood of retaining the House or recapturing the Senate. Boner, McConnell, Cantor, et al, should be thrown out of office & tried for treason. They just divided & destroyed the Republican party in one swoop, which at least GW Bush took 8 years to destroy the Repub party. Thanks RINO & CINO bastards!

[PfromHoGro]

Ditto.

Times a million millions.

[truthguy]

The American people and our once great nation, the USA. Piss on the Repukes like Boner & McConnell & establishment elitist Repukes who sold & betrayed the election of 2010 and the people who voted for these bastards.

The American people are the losers because they elected Barack Obama and gave him a super majority for 2 years in which to create havoc. I'd like to know just what you would have done IF you only control one branch of government. Just what would you have done?

Yes, we all wanted something better but reasonable people can also count. The idiots in Nevada returned Reid to office. The idiots in California returned Boxer to office. We could have had Tom Campbell as Senator in California had not so many of the same types of people who post on FR gone with Carly Fiorina. We could have had another Republican in Delaware if those foolish people had not put up O'Donnell instead of Mike Castle. O'Donnell was slaughtered in the general election. That's a 6 vote swing in the Senate.

Progress is in made in increments. We don't yet have the votes to achieve what we want and it's foolish to believe we could have got any better deal than what we did. In order to really change things, we must win in 2012.

[Go Gordon]

Yep, just one more bill ought to do it.

You forgot the Gramm-RudmanHollings Act. This act, was passed on December 11, 1985. It set a series of targets for eliminating the federal budget deficit by October 1, 1990. If Congress and the president failed to agree on voluntary spending reductions, the law called for automatic cuts of the necessary percentage from each item in the budget. One-half of the cuts were to come from domestic spending and one-half from defense spending.

Now for the good part

On July 7, 1986, the Supreme Court struck down the automatic-cut provision, on the ground that the act improperly delegated authority to the controller-general, an agent of Congress designated to implement the cuts.

Congress restored the automatic cuts in 1987, avoiding constitutional problems by assigning the power to make the cuts to the president and the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

I hope they did it correct this time.

[Elendur]

Progress is in made in increments. We don’t yet have the votes to achieve what we want and it’s foolish to believe we could have got any better deal than what we did. In order to really change things, we must win in 2012.
///
i’m far from an expert, but Rush, Mark Levin, Club for Growth, Heritage Foundation, Jim DeMint, and many others, say you are wrong.
doing NOTHING, would have been better, than giving Obama another 2 TRILLION to spend.
instead of forcing HIM to cut freebies to HIS base,
all this did was dishearted the people who literally sent money they couldn’t afford, to send Tea Party candidates like Alan West to DC, who then betrayed them.

and funny, but the Democrats seem to do VERY well, with 1/3.
and look at the spending increase they got in 2007, when the GOP still had the WH.

and if we DO win, in 2013 there will be a 17 TRILLION debt, downgraded AAA rating, double digit unemployment and inflation.

Holding the line NOW, for REAL spending cuts, like the Coburn plan (9 trillion in REAL cuts) would have SAVED the economy, and sparked a REAL recovery!

Obama has increased spending by 40%. and we cut it back by 2%.
wow. great victory.

cutting an increase, is NOT a decrease.
and this bill passes the 2012 and 2013 budgets by “deeming”,
and has BUILT IN increases of 5%, and allow the Bush tax cuts to expire.
wow. great victory.

another such victory, and the war will be lost...

[WOBBLY BOB]

thanks! I will add it to the list of BS worthless bills.

[WOBBLY BOB]

“Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act” and “Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act” are the same thing...

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0909709.html

[kilt1iron]

Well said, Elendur.

[TheOldLady]

Boop His Tiny Tail!

Can you believe those itty bitty claws
will soon be six inches long?

Don't let the left get out of hand
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[kilt1iron]

“Foolish People?”

You sound like Hugh Hewitt on KRLA-870AM.

I prefer Mark Levin on KABC-790AM. He, & me are tired of ‘your way’ -— it is time to act.

I recommend taking a hand gun self-defense course, and purchasing firearms as soon as possible.

When our government refuses to listen, we will have to make them listen.

And, if you do not understand what point I am trying to make, you are part of the problem. What I am saying is, we will defend our God-given rights, those rights carefully and thoughtfully listed in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. The ideas that became the Bill of Rights, were discussed thoroughly by our Founding Fathers in the Federalist Papers.

Seccession by the States from the “Federal entity” is a solution. The States will retake the power assigned to themselves, which was stolen from them by the Fed.

Do you understand?

Read our founding documents, and think about what is discussed therein.

[truthguy]

i’m far from an expert, but Rush, Mark Levin, Club for Growth, Heritage Foundation, Jim DeMint, and many others, say you are wrong.

You would be wise to not consider Rush an expert at anything other than his own self promotion. Likewise Levin is not an expert on economics and you can count in DeMint as well. It's unpredictable what a default would have done. But I'm betting it wouldn't be good. And I'm willing to bet Obama is totally willing to destroy the US economy if given a chance. And I can assure you that the Mainstream News Media would have blamed it on the Republicans not compromising. This would have led to a disaster in 2012. This is what they were hoping for. Again you must never have been in involved in negotiations when you don't hold the high cards. It's easy to say things like we should no nothing and let a default happen. But when things are on the line you must cut the best deal you can. I wouldn't take the gamble of a default.

[RedEyeJack]

“things are on the line you must cut the best deal you can.”

OK... please explain why it always seems to be the Republicans who take the best deal the Democrats are willing to offer and not the other way around... The American people are getting what they wanted and deserve.

For God and Country... Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo!

[KansasGirl]

[I’d like to know just what you would have done IF you only control one branch of government. Just what would you have done?]

I would have refused to raise the debt limit. There you go, mission accomplished, balanced budget. That is what the House should have done.

[truthguy]

Seccession by the States from the “Federal entity” is a solution. The States will retake the power assigned to themselves, which was stolen from them by the Fed.

That worked really well in 1861, didn't it?

And with regards to foolish people, I think you are referring to my comments about Christine O'Donnell. Do you know who the Senator from Delaware now is? I'll tell you it's Chris Coons who defeated O'Donnell 57% to 40%. That's a slaughter by any calculation.

I don't know what to make of your rant other than to say "Up the medication".