Posted on 11/18/2023 6:02:27 AM PST by cotton1706
Sen. Mitt Romney and Sen. Joe Manchin’s bill to stabilize the national debt, which has more than doubled in the last decade, has been gaining bipartisan support in Congress.
The Fiscal Stability Act aims to strengthen and stabilize the country’s fiscal health by establishing a commission to find solutions to decrease the national debt that currently exceeds $33.6 trillion.
The legislation would require Congress to take an up or down vote on the proposed solutions, adding an extra layer of accountability.
“Establishing our bipartisan fiscal commission will help balance our budgets, keep government spending lean and responsible, and protect and strengthen the Medicare and Social Security benefits hard-working Arizonans have earned with every paycheck,” said Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., a co-sponsor of the bill.
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., another co-sponsor, said he also supports creating the commission, which, he added, is the best way to create real reform amid a highly polarized political climate.
The bill has at least six other co-sponsors, including Republican Sens. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina; and Democratic Sens. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Mark Warner of Virginia and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
The current $34 trillion in national debt will be over $45 trillion in 4 years at our current rate of debt increase.
Our payments on the interest of that debt is currently $700 billion with interest rates increases taking that to over $3 trillion within 4 years. Debt payments are a few years behind interest rate increases as the bonds are purchased at the higher interest rates then mature a few years later.
Our national income is around $4.5 trillion. We spend that and take on more debt every year. This year the additional debt is over $2 trillion.
We are broke as a nation. We are paying more out than we
take in, and just the additional debt is to exceed our revenues within two years. Our interest payments will consume all of our revenues within 6 years.
Nothing at this time can change this except massive cuts in spending.
Medicare/Medicaid spending is $1.5 trillion.
Social Security is $1.4 trillion.
Defense is $800 billion.
Debt interest payment is $700 billion.
We are a socialized nation, doomed to financial failure.
Offered as solutions, the left always wants to make government bigger, more inefficient and hungrier (for our money). Not until it consumes all productivity will people realize it’s a slippery slope that eventually destroys the standard of living and prosperity. But by then, the authoritarian government has taken total control and can’t be reined in.
Let’s study the problem and in a few years issue a thousand-page report. In the meantime we have to keep printing money. We have no choice.
Thanks, Mittens, for your incisive leadership.
Perhaps Poonia is new to this country and doesn't yet comprehend that adding nothing to nothing equals nothing.
Well, if a commission is set up, we ought to see some results in thirty or forty years.
I have a better plan.
Lets create a Commission to study the feasibility of creating a Commission to study the feasibility of creating a Commission to study the feasibility of creating a Commission.
This is something every true policy wonk can support.
;-)
Summary
Congressional advisory commissions are formal groups established to provide independent
advice; make recommendations for changes in public policy; study or investigate a particular
problem, issue, or event; or perform a duty. While no legal definition exists for what constitutes a
“congressional commission,” in this report a congressional commission is defined as a multimember independent entity that (1) is established by Congress, (2) exists temporarily, (3) serves
in an advisory capacity, (4) is appointed in part or whole by Members of Congress, and
(5) reports to Congress. These five characteristics differentiate a congressional commission from
a presidential commission, an executive branch commission, or other bodies with “commission”
in their names. Over 100 congressional commissions have been established since 1989.
************************************************************
The most infamous of all US Commissions was LBJ’s Warren Commission which was established to polish up a BIG LIE to the American People that would protect the actual killers.
Anyone else here remember the Reagan era, Grace Commission? Reagan set up this commission, to study federal spending, and develop plans to root out waste and fraud, so that federal spending would be reduced.
I don’t recall if any lasting effects ever came out of the Grace Commission.
It’s all well and good, to study a problem. But then if there is no political will to follow through on making tough decisions to deal with a problem, the problem never gets solved.
The annual cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the Department of Defense, and federal debt interest payments, was about $4.2 trillion in Fiscal 2023.
Total federal receipts in Fiscal 2023 were just $4.4 trillion.
In other words, our four most expensive programs are almost in deficit, BEFORE we pay for anything else!
This is not going to end well.
1. The solutions should not be so-called “bipartisan”. They should come from outside the Congress, outside the federal government, by indepenent financial/economic analysts.
3. The goal should not be to “stabilize” the federal debt but to reduce it, drastically.
4. Reducing the debt should include selling federal assets, particularly federal lands (reducing the lands in the western states held by the federal government) and federal mineral rights on federal lands.
5. It should not require any “commision”, merely hearings that listen to the outside independent analysts tell the idiot “bipartisan” politicians what they ought to do (and the hearings should be public).
His USUAL DOG & PONY SHOW-—without any animals.
Setting up a lucrative consulting job on the committee when he is out of the government.
Romney refuses to do that. But Romney will sit in front of TV cameras and talk about the need for a commission to look at the problem sometime in the future.
They should have issued a “strongly worded memo”
It amazes me Mittens has enough brain power to get out of bed in the morning.
“ establishing a commission to find solutions to decrease the national debt that currently exceeds $33.6 trillion.”
A fake commission to provide excuses why overspending can’t be stopped
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