Mr. President: We Will Not Increase Debt Ceiling without Spending Cuts!

4 Your Country ^ | 1/3/12 | 4 Your Country

[CriticalThinking]

With the Fiscal Cliff behind us, it is time to focus our country on fixing the economy. In the last 4 years, in an effort to help the economy, spending has exceeded revenue by $1T each year. Our National Debt at $16T exceeds our annual GDP. Government spending can help economic growth at times, but this government spending has not.

While the President enjoys his victory lap, it is time for the adults to stand up and focus the nation’s mind on our fiscal house. Like any good plan, simplicity of purpose gets a lot accomplished. The President does not want to debate “Raising the Debt Ceiling”. That’s fine, let us not debate it. Instead, debate how to cut spending. Not if we are going to cut spending, but how to cut spending.

The Speaker of the House needs to send a simple message to everyone, and not waiver one inch on his core point:

We Will Not Increase the Debt Ceiling Without Spending Cuts!

[ClearCase_guy]

This is absolutely asinine.

Carry out the spending cuts. Real spending cuts. Be fiscally responsible for once.

Raising the debt ceiling is the very definition of being fiscally irresponsible. The notion of “we’ll raise your debt ceiling if you agree to spending cuts” is about the stupidest trade-off I can imagine.

[JayAr36]

We Will Not Increase the Debt Ceiling Without Spending Cuts!
ROLFLMAO, sure that will happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ClearCase_guy]

And another thing -- why not "negotiate" like Democrats do?

"Debt ceiling? No. That's not being raised. Don't waste my time on that -- now, about these spending cuts, here's what I want ..."

[ScottinVA]

Truly cutting spending eliminates the need to raise the debt ceiling.

[dinodino]

The Speaker of the House is a complete buttplug, so the chances of him holding a hard line on anything are about the same as the chances of my head jumping off my shoulders and flying around the room under its own power.

[soycd]

boner will give the rats everything they want and shed a quick tear for dramatic effect.

The GOP is useless at this time.

[cotton1706]

Unless we raise it and set up a super committee (to come up with cuts) who will not do anything which will trigger a sequester which we will delay.

But we really mean it this time.

[kabar]

The notion of “we’ll raise your debt ceiling if you agree to spending cuts” is about the stupidest trade-off I can imagine.

The debt ceiling will have to raised at some point. We can't balance the budget in one year or five years. The first thing that needs to be done is to change the trajectory of spending, which will be difficult because the entitlement programs costs are increasing every year due to the fact that 10,000 people a day are retiring and will do so for the next 20 years. By 2030 one in five Americans will be 65 or older and there will be just two workers for every retiree.

The dirty little secret is that we cannot pay SS and Medicare benefits without borrowing the money.

[fruser1]

Sadly, this will not happen.

Obama, dems, and RINOs will simply cite that elections have consequences.

And everyone else will forget that, for some reason, the 2010 elections did not have consequences.

What we got in the post 2010 election debt ceiling debate was the sequestration plan of today.

[Thorliveshere]

They’re completely oblivious to their oxymoron, aren’t they?

[circlecity]

"We Will Not Increase the Debt Ceiling Without Spending Cuts!"

LOL. That's the same thing we head before the last debate on the debt ceiling and what did we ultimately get? Higher taxes, a raised debt ceiling AND spending increases. I think we've passed the point of no return and don't have the political will to do what has to be done. The REAL fiscal cliff is fast approaching in the windshield and nobody in going to hit the breaks.

[alloysteel]

Really bold action - DECREASE the debt limit to the level at which it was under the last day of Bush-43’s term in office.

Which means, a LOT of obligations must be somehow be paid off before the US Government may be allowed to borrow more money.

Time to cut up the current credit card. The “full faith and credit” of the Federal government is strained beyond any definition of the terms. There is no longer any faith in the credit of the US Treasury or the Federal Reserve, which have shown an unconscionable flouting of any previous constraint placed upon them.

Citibank would not tolerate this sort of behavior by ANY of their customers more than a time or two. The elective portion of the US government has been profligate on an historic scale not expected to be achieved by any other entity for thousands of years into the future.

[Iron Munro]

The fight for sensible, prudent, non-socialist government is over.

The people made their choice in November and the moochers carried the day.

The only direction the USA will go for the next four years is down.

Our only hope (and it is a small one) is that Obama drives the country so far into the ground that people come to their senses when the 2016 election rolls around.

But don’t count on it.
Odds are that the same insanity that put Obama in the White House will get Hillary elected.

[Truth29]

"The debt ceiling will have to raised at some point. We can't balance the budget in one year or five years. The first thing that needs to be done is to change the trajectory of spending, which will be difficult because the entitlement programs costs are increasing every year due to the fact that 10,000 people a day are retiring and will do so for the next 20 years. By 2030 one in five Americans will be 65 or older and there will be just two workers for every retiree."

And that is an optimistic viewpoint. Another would be after the US collapses and goes Road Warrior, the wolves will harvest the sheep and then each other and a much smaller population will survive in a Hollywood post apocalyptic future movie set.

[ClearCase_guy]

The debt ceiling will have to raised at some point.

Republicans just sound like Democrats "We have to raise the debt ceiling."

And Mitt Romney is the most electable Republican ...

I'm tired of that crap from the GOP. We have too much debt. Deal with it. Don't raise the debt ceiling. You do not "have to". What you need to do is make hard choices on spending. Yeah: that means entitlements.

[mykroar]

Who’s “we”? Maybe there’s a mouse in their pocket. I know they ain’t talking about the Repubs.

[kabar]

I'm tired of that crap from the GOP. We have too much debt. Deal with it. Don't raise the debt ceiling. You do not "have to". What you need to do is make hard choices on spending. Yeah: that means entitlements.

Yes entitlements are the key. They are the biggest driver of our debt. But you have to raise the debt ceiling regardless in the short term.

For example, by law, the General Fund pays 75% of the costs for Medicare Parts B and D. The premiums collected only account for 25% of the program costs. In FY 2011 the General Fund paid $222 billion for Medicare Parts B and D.

SS has been running in the red since 2010 and Medicare Part A since 2008. This requires more money from the GF to makeup the shortall by redeeming the IOUs in the HI and SS trust funds. And the costs for these programs are going up faster than inflation. Add to that an aging population as the baby boomer population starts to retire--like a pig thru a python.

Add to the 57 million on SS and 47 million on Medicare another 70 million on Medicaid and 48 million on food stamps. Leaving aside the double dippers, there is an enormous part of the population that receives a government check--about one in every two. Do you think any politician can ignore these numbers and survive?

We must balance our budget eventually, but there is no way we cannot raise our debt ceiling in the short term. Two thirds of the budget is on automatic pilot with entitlements, other "mandatories," and debt servicing costs increasing without the need for explicit Congressional approval--for the most part. All the tax revenue collected covers just this portion of the budget. You are not going to make the necessary changes to these programs overnight.

The GOP must use the debt ceiling increase as a lever to get entitlement reform, including a government shutdown if necessary, but there is no way we can keep the current debt ceiling in place.

And then there is this. Government spending at all levels accounts for about 45% of GDP. There are so many people, businesses, public employees, etc. that any immediate, large reduction in government spending would send the economy into a tailspin decreasing tax revenue and increasing the need for more government assistance. We see this playing out in Greece with the EU calling for more and more austerity measures, which have increased unemployment to more than 25% and decrease revenue. It is the formula for a death spiral.

So far, our political betters have postponed making the hard and painful decisions necessary to change course. Both parties are addicted to spending and the public rewards them with reelection. I blame the voters most of all because they are unwilling to accept any cuts to things like SS and Medicare. We have created a culture of dependency and big goverment. Is there the political will to get off of this tiger. Count me as skeptical. It may well take a collapse ala Greece to get the American people's attention to the fact that the welfare state is unsustainable.

[Steamburg]

How many lines in the sand will get washed away with Boehner’s tears. There will be no recovery for America until we have a radical RINO-ectomy!

[G Larry]

If I were Speaker, I’d issue this statement:

“To date, the President has failed to follow through on ANY of the promises he’s made, regarding compromise or negotiations on spending, and has exempted his contributors from his tax increases, or the costs of his Obamacare mandates.”

“Because of this lack of integrity and follow through, there is no point in engaging with him in the future.”

“To be lectured about “fairness”, while he exempts his friends and contributors, will no longer go unremarked.”

“We are through negotiating against ourselves, and will not move, until the President has made good on his end of the bargin.”