The Debt Deal's Three Biggest Winners and Losers

A sudden, forced 45% reduction in federal spending in one fell swoop would have caused the Dow to plummet, unemployment to increase to 11 - 14% (federal and contractor layoffs), etc., etc.

Now, some Cloward-Piven types say “let it crash, it has to...” but let me ask you a question...

If all the above happened, what would happen in November 2012? The GOP House would be squarely blamed for the chaos, and thrown out of office, along with Obama’s re-election.

Then, the new Dem Congress just raises the debt ceiling anyway, but this time, the revenues are even lower due to higher unemployment and lower GDP than we have now.

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?

We had the votes in the House, if only Boehner & Cantor & the spineless Repukes would have exercised it. There were 2 CR's (Continuing Resolutions) in Dec 2010 and April 2011, in which the House Repubs simply kicked the can down the road to avoid dealing with increasing the debt ceiling or submitting a budget for 2012. Finally when they could not delay any further at this time, they wilted like flowers in a scorching heat, and gave 0dumb0 the crown jewels, namely a $2.4 TRILLION increase to the debt limit till after the Nov 2012 elections. Boehner, McConnell & the Repub weenies just gave the 2012 election back to 0dumb0 and to the House & Senate demoRATs, along with a $2.4 TRILLION war chest. The House will flip back to the demoRATs in 2012 and the Senate will see more DemoRATs rather than fewer.

Funding originates in the House. If Boehner & the Repubs had any balls, they should have done the following immediately 2 months ago.

All Boehner & the Repukes had to do was to set the stage right at the very beginning and to declare emphatically with no hesitation.....

1) Not one penny increase to the debt limit

2) Mandatory spending cuts of $1 Trillion in 2012, including defunding Odumb0Care entirely.

3) To hell with "spending cuts" that reach out for 10 years. It is totally false & bogus & will be overturned with the next socialist (and socialist lite) Congress.

.
They did none of the above and instead gave 0dumb0 what he was really after, the $2.4 TRILLION increase to the debt ceiling. Now 0dumb0 can spend & bankrupt us like crazy with or without tax hikes, because he will either simply borrow more or print more money.

Boehner & the Repukes blew it in huge way.

When bonehead sent up the bill with the cut and balance provision and immediately said he had an alternate plan he telegraphed for all to see this was a sham, period. He gave those who needed some cover the opportunity to say the voted for the bill which did these things while telling the world, including the dimbulb in the oval office, don’t worry, you will never see this bill on your desk. Surprise, it never got out of the senate. I lost all respect for him at that point because I could see the drill, a charade. Then they send up another bill knowing full well the senate was going to shred it and dictate a bill back which is exactly what happened.

I noted to my sham congressman who voted for the first bill and widely noted his vote and then voted to approve the final bill he is through as far as I am concerned. I hope there is a primary challenge and he loses. A dem will never win in this district and he knows it.

Actually, a 45% reduction in federal spending equates to a 45% reduction on the burden imposed on the private sector and financial markets. A balanced budget would necessarily force a lot of regulatory and enforcement agencies to close.

The effect of this upon the markets and private sector would be staggering. No longer would industry be hampered by endless, conflicting, heavy-handed bureaucratic oversight and confiscation of profits. The financial markets would be assured of the stability of the USD and viability of US Treasury bills.

When a TEA party congress and president implements a balanced budget and shuts down a large sector of the bureaucracy the economy will take off. Until then the affliction is inescapable.

Absolutely not! The markets would make a direct correlation -and correctly so- that the loss of that much of government bureaucracy will reduce government oversight, free up economic activity while also providing additional capital available for investing.

It would be a sharp re-bound because the stock market and bond market would jump immediately. This would make substantial funds available to corporations to take advantage of the now freed-up marketplace to expand production and take market share.

It’s how free markets operate. When we return to one the economy will recover very rapidly.

“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 the kind of attitude that assures that the spineless Repubs will NEVER tackle the tough issues and instead be content to let us go over a cliff. The GOP leadership acted completely out of fear and did NOTHING to counter the false narrative of a default-as is evidenced by people right here on FR buying into that notion. The math is pretty simple:

1. The govn’t takes in roughly $200 billion monthly in revenue.

2. The govn’t spends roughly $300 billion each month.

3. It costs the govn’t roughly $20 billion to pay the bondholders and service the debt each month.

Therefore, all that is needed is to take the first $20 billion in revenue and pay the bondholders, and you have no default, pure and simple. Take the remaining $180 billion and prioritize spending, obviously making some tough choices along the way.

This is what households have to do when they can no longer borrow any more money to support their spending levels. It’s called living within your means.

The GOP was holding all the cards AND 65-70% of the American people were against raising the debt ceiling until the media started screaming “Armageddon!” This is a situation the American people could have understood and gotten behind us on if we’d bothered to educate them. But instead, our gutless leaders decided to cut and run and take the “best deal we can get” and get out of town. Our leadership is a total disgrace.

As bad as this option was, it would have been far better to give Obama a clean debt ceiling increase then this pile of crap they call a compromise.

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 not going to 'blame' anyone. In view of the nationally coordinated and likely fraudulent campaigns against Angle and O'Donnell with incredible press attacks, I don't believe any other candidate would ahve fared much better, just maybe had more dirt to dig.

Regardless, I think when the sh*tfitting is done, everyone should pull their skivvies out of their cracks and get down to business.

We are in this for the long haul. This isn't some one-day-picnic in the park deal, although those are nice.

If we have the sense to take a page from their playbook, we make progress where we can. We run a couple of outrageous candidates--outrageously Conservative candidates--especially in districts we do not expect to take anyway, and let the media paint them as "extremists" so everyone else of ours on the ballot looks more mainstream, even to them. Let the tide shift. Let's move the middle of the road back to the middle and get it off the left shoulder.

The biggest and most consistent mistake the Republican Party has made over the last three decades is to let the media paint someone as an "extremist" and then shrink away from that person, the truth, and being right to avoid being painted as "extremists" too.

Instead of throwing ANYONE on our side under the bus, let's embrace them, and let them lead the way like an icebreaker.

The Left has used their extremists this way, with great success, while the Republicans have painted themselves into the Liberal corner trying to seem "Moderate" the whole time they have let the Left redefine the term.

This isn't happening overnight. A minimum of three Senate elections, and maybe five, to turn the tide, and we have to build enough of a group in the House to hold the line. If only half the Freshmen got Beltway Fever, that's far better than business as usual.

The ones who forgot how they got to DC should face primary challenges.

We won't get ahead by voting against RINOs in the general, but we can toss them there. In the meantime, they are placeholders who might not vote Democrat every time while we make progress on other fronts and in other districts.

It will take time. THe MSM will to continue to attack us every step of the way, revile us as "extremists" and keep hyping the "terrorist" meme even as the Government arms criminals and excuses 'flash mobs' and the obviously violent and terrorist of other groups of people who are not us.

Expect as much, they have been doing this, they are just getting more shrill. I really don't think any more people believe this than did swallow that dung sandwich in the first place.

I pray the Republic can survive this crap.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.