Posted on 04/11/2011 7:27:07 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In the opening months of 2011, Republican budget-cutters had to play on a small field. Instead of being able to tackle the structural issues of the massive deficit while planning the FY2012 budget, the House instead had to finish the work left undone by Democrats for the current fiscal year. Under pressure to keep defense and security spending in place, the entire spending pool available to cut amounted to less than $300 billion when the first continuing resolution expired in March, and the GOP forced Democrats to eventually cut almost $50 billion from that discretionary spending in the end.
Boehner writes in an op-ed for USA Today that the next fight will be an order of magnitude larger:
The budget by Chairman Ryan has set the bar. If the president is willing to follow our lead and offer serious proposals that address the drivers of our debt and the barriers that are holding back our economy, we’ll welcome it, and we’re open to hearing them. But in order to be credible, the White House plan must preserve and protect programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and set us on a path to pay down the national debt.
So far, the president has only outlined an irresponsible budget that would impose a job-crushing $1.5 trillion tax hike, add $9.1 trillion to the debt over the next decade, and do nothing to address our autopilot spending. Instead, it locks in place the spending binge that has increased every child’s share of the national debt to $45,000.
Rather than removing uncertainty for private-sector job creators and bolstering confidence in our economy, the president’s budget is likely to deepen anxiety among families, small business operators and investors — the people who really create jobs in America.
President Obama also wants a debt limit increase, but says spending cuts and budget reforms shouldn’t be attached to it. Americans will not stand for that. We must follow their will.
Actually, Obama plans to offer a new plan on entitlements later today, which we’ll cover in a separate post.
Some Tea Party activists are unhappy that Boehner’s deal didn’t already deal in trillions, but there simply weren’t trillions to cut in FY2011′s budget — only the remainder of the discretionary spending left after five months of temporary spending authorizations. Entitlement programs spend on auto-pilot as they are statutory obligations passed into law; the published federal budget produced by Congress only estimates those costs, while authorizing discretionary spending. Statutory changes to law have to be proposed and adopted separately from budgets by rule and by practicality. Ryan and the GOP will now have the opportunity to start proposing and pushing the kind of statutory changes necessary to change the direction of the auto-pilot that will reduce the entitlement spending for the future, starting in FY2012 if Congress can pass something that Barack Obama will sign.
Republicans still need to keep pressure on discretionary spending. They managed to reduce non-security discretionary spending by over 10% for the FY2011 year from Obama’s budget request ($49 billion from $450 billion), but that comes after three years of expanding discretionary spending by almost 20%. Discretionary spending is merely the appetizer to the deficit problem, though; even with Defense and Homeland Security, it totaled $1.3 trillion in Obama’s budget proposal. WE could have cut all of it and we’d still be $300-400 billion in the red.
Boehner’s right that the next fight will be on entitlements. It’s really the only fight that matters now that FY2011 has been put to bed.
“—I’m not looking for an MSM article- I just want the facts. It’s a Conservative hangup, I guess. Silly me.”
ROFLOL. I’m sorry. Please show me the simple breakdown of the US budget process and a clear cut, *accurate* analysis of the current numbers. Good luck, btw, as the way these budgets are calculated is ridiculously byzantine. This has nothing to do with MSM being accurate. The point was, it is not simple to be accurate.
“I have not seen any evidence whatsoever that the GOP is prepared for the “next” battle.”
1. Google “Obama 2012 budget.” Read the results. The articles, from MSM, lefties and every other source discuss *Ryan’s* budget and how Obama will react. That’s called controlling the debate, which is necessary to win.
2. Turn on your television. Turn it to Fox, CBS, heck, even MSNBC. Wait for the first story on the budget. What is the amount of cuts they are discussing? Your piddly $100 billion, or a more hefty sum?
3. Go to youtube. Search for “Brooks, Marcus on ‘Absurdity’ of Shutdown Debates, Paul Ryan’s Budget Plan.” Go to 12:10 and listen to the liberal. Does she sound like she thinks the dems are winning? Who does she think is framing the debate?
Let’s set up a little scenario. Say it’s 2041 and you are president Qbert. We are in a war with the Mazzis whose capital is in the city of Merlin. You promised the people that we would take the Merman city of Monn. Your general comes to you and says, “Mr. President, I know you’ve promised to take Monn this year, but the situation on the ground has changed significantly. If we skip Monn, we can move right into Merlin this year and end the whole war. If we attack Monn, it will be a success, but the war will go on for much longer and will be much more costly, as it will require the resources we need to attack Merlin.” President Qbert doesn’t even think. He says, “Take Merlin now and end this thing.” All of a sudden, the Blogosphere goes crazy. “Why is he not taking Monn? He said he would take Monn. He’s a bad guy and a liar!”
If your situation changes, BPT change your plan and issue a FRAGO. All soldiers hate FRAGOs, but not issuing them means failure.
“Hell, do you honestly think that once the election heat turns up on the RINOs, that they’ll even go for the plan?
But yeah, this is *the* year that Cubbies are going to win the World Series...”
We *just* elected a bunch of tea party candidates. Not enough, I’ll grant you, but let’s work on replacing dems with Tea Party candidates, not the guys we *just* elected and who sit in the minority.
It sounds like you don’t believe economic reform will *ever* be possible regardless of elections. If that’s a case, go find a bar and drink away your blues. The rest of us will continue to work for more improvements. Excuse me if you think my efforts are just too feeble. I’m not a give up and run away crying kind of guy.
The change that should be attached to any debt-limit increase should be the TOTAL ELIMINATION of all statutes that REQUIRE any spending, so that in the future, Congress will have to vote to spend each dollar every year. That way, ALL spending becomes discretionary, and subject to possibly being reduced.
Yo, bonehead (your term!): the $38B is the CUMULATIVE total of all deals done this year. The Repubs aren’t telling you this for obvious reasons; they’re happy you’re confused by the math.
I think that, perhaps, you intended this for Siena Dreaming.
However, the budget process means little to me. How the numbers are reported means a great deal.
Congress has passed a labyrinth of rules and regulations for the accounting of publicly traded corporations, and yet they continue to have the most bizarrely nontransparent reporting of any legal entity in the US.
What are these cuts? Cuts as cutting growth? Cuts as in cuts as a percent of GDP? Cuts as in cutting the actual expenditure amount? You can classify all these as “cuts,” but you have to identify which is which and keep them in their own buckets. Otherwise, the whole debate about the dollar amount is pointless.
No matter how you define “cut,” however, $36 billion or $100 billion is chump change to what we are spending. Let’s move on to the real battle: the 2012 budget.
BTW guys: NY had a similar problem this year, with huge deficits and no interest in reducing them. DEMOCRAT Gov. Cuomo walked in, told everyone the realities, told everyone to stop playing the games he knew they were playing, and got a balanced budget passed on time.
If a hyper liberal Democrat can balance a budget on time in a hyper liberal spending addicted state, the Republicans should be able to in Congress.
Reducing the deficit by 2%, when there isn’t even a budget in place, is consenting to a credit card spree - not opposition thereto.
Down at ... the floor House ...
Quar ... tet.
You got ... a Boehner?
Not yet.
Are you gonna’ get one?
You bet.
Down at the whore “House”
Quar ... tet
[Kick the DC ruling class OUT of the House leadership! Start with the Boehner.]
I’m with you guys in spirit. God bless you hard working patriots! FRegards !
I took it as a challenge to show how convoluted where the actual cuts come from.
Which lead to the problem of accountability If we cannot determine what got cut and by how much. How do we the voter assign blame when the cuts don't materialize
The Boehner cried and cried: “We’re just one half of one third of the government. We’re just ‘wittew’ teeny weeny weenies who have ‘wittow power.”
Yeah, even a little old lady can take charge of a house if she controls the purse stringe.
Now *that* is a question *no one* is asking. What measure do we use to determine if we've reached our desired end point?
I prefer the expenditures and taxes as a percent of GDP method for a number of reasons. If you look at history, you will see that Bush wasn't as bad as we thought, and Obama as bad as we think.
It is for that reason I am watching Governor Moonbeam in CA, to see what he he does.
The difference is that Cuomo was NY comptroller, and thus knew where all the money was going and why - and as governor, he said “not on my watch”.
Good point, dat.
“ROFLOL. I’m sorry. Please show me the simple breakdown of the US budget process and a clear cut, *accurate* analysis of the current numbers...”
—I’ll take that as an indication that you don’t know...
At any rate, do you know if the previous CR amounts (10-12B, I believe) are being included in the 38B total? I mean, *that* shouldn’t be like pulling teeth, right?
“Google “Obama 2012 budget.” Read the results. The articles, from MSM, lefties and every other source discuss *Ryan’s* budget and how Obama will react. That’s called controlling the debate, which is necessary to win....Does she sound like she thinks the dems are winning?...”
—Did you hear Rush talking today about the Libs’ so-called panic here? He nailed it (as always)- it’s a ruse. The MSM and the Libs are going to spend the next two years demagoguing Ryan’s plan, turning the debate to typical class-warfare rhetoric, and on and on. Obama will have his “sensible” budget (full of double-counting accounting tricks and tax hikes) unlike the “draconian” Ryan plan.
And the Repubs will respond like the bobble-headed mush-mouths that they are. I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it.
“Let’s set up a little scenario...but the situation on the ground has changed significantly...”
—Where has the situation changed in the budget debate since January, 2011!!??
“Your piddly $100 billion, or a more hefty sum?”
—I’m afraid you don’t understand. I would have gone for something like Rand Paul’s proposal (two-five times that much). Think it’s “extreme” and “crazy”?- nope, just a test to build strategies for the even bigger battle.
Touche!
“—Did you hear Rush talking today about the Libs’ so-called panic here? He nailed it (as always)- it’s a ruse.”
That would require quite a bit of coordination, and exactly how would convincing Americans cutting spending is good, then . . .
I apologize for wasting your time. Please make sure your foil hat is on securely to keep the mind control rays at bay.
You not only know nothing;
You suspect nothing.
Wow! An anonymous commentator on the web thinks he knows more about the political landscape than a radio host with 20 Million listeners! Who woulda thunk it?...
You Boehnheads are almost as delusional as the Libs.
None of these "children" whose future wealth is being spent have a right to vote. This is taxation without representation. Period. Totally unconstitutional. Might we suggest that the answer to this be lowering the voting age to five and letting these kids know who it is spending THEIR money?
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