Posted on 07/31/2011 5:13:39 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
Before they cut services and rein in spending, they will try to raise taxes and cut defense. They will fight tooth and nail to keep the system going. If history is any judge, in the battle between guns and butter, butter always wins. With 54 million on SS, 47 million on Medicare, 60 million on Medicaid, and 44 million on food stamps, there is a huge constituency to keep the gravy train going. Add Obamacare to the mix and the fact that by 2030 one in five Americans will be 65 and older, twice what it is now, and you have the ingredients for a crisis of epic proportions.
We are approaching the last crossroads. It is not with this debt ceiling battle, though. The crossroads we are coming to are November, 2012. If we continue on the same road then, we are doomed.
This latest smoke and mirrors exercise over the debt ceiling demonstrates that there is not the will among our political elites to make real spending cuts. Rather, both parties continue to play word games about "cuts" that are not reductions in spending but in the rate of the growth of spending. We will still continue to run trillion dollar annual deficits for years to come.
If/when interest rates reach historic norms, we will be paying close to a trillion dollars a year in just debt servicing costs within a decade. Imagine, when Obama took office the national debt was $10 trillion, it is now $14.3 trillion, and by the end of 2012 it will be close to $17 trillion. Alas Babylon!
Yeah, we had post by MM of how the dems spin words she was absolutely correct.
Just a guess,the big guy will have his say tomorrow.
I'd be willing to throw in a really nice teleprompter setup if it would prompt him to exit the WH stat.
With 54 million on SS, 47 million on Medicare, 60 million on Medicaid, and 44 million on food stamps, there is a huge constituency to keep the gravy train going.
*****
Important numbers!
I dream of a discussion with people marginally interested in economics, where I present the scenario of a community deciding how to spend a pool of community funds. How many security people, gardeners, cleaners, etc can we afford to pay? How much insurance, building fund, contingency, office, etc is mandatory?
Should every member of the community pay the same into the pool of money, should there be categories of contributors?
I would hope to illustrate that for every person not putting into the pool of money, someone else has to put in more.
Hoping to joggle a few brain cells...
Spot. On.
Let the Wookie's husband win and then watch what happens. The Republicans are very good at walking into every trap that is set for them. Let's go ahead and try to develop some trapping skills of our own.
Great post, AB.
Oh, yes, I agree, and damn fine point.
Now as to the rest of us, and especially the mushy middle who decide elections (given that diehards will ALWAYS vote thier party), what do THEY want?
To lose their economic status, to be ruined, to die? Because that’s what happens to the middle class in a communist/socialist takeover.
I don’t think they want that at all; it’s just that they don’t see what their own eyes are telling them and what their own ears are hearing. Voting for Balack Obama was an inspiring thing, especially with that mean ole’ war-monger Bush and the eevvvilll Republicans.
But now the rubber is hitting the road; hard. Where are the jobs? Unemployemnt in my state jumped up to 9.9 last month.
It’s one thing to listen to the constant propaganda and goe along with the flow... But reality is, well, reality. How’s that Hope and Change thing working out for y’all? The President “won” the budget battle in 2011, so now we’ll finally get the jobs back?
Nope.
Maybe, just maybe, they’ll begin to realize that the dems don’t want things to get better.... Woe to them when enough people start to understand that!
OOOOOO-RAH!!
Can’t we just get a collection and BUY them out of the WH???
ha.
A note to the folks who wish to continue living off the fruits of someone else’s labor: Socialism will NOT keep you in the style to which you’ve become accustomed.
Meanwhile I think we are getting hosed on the deficit deal since no one at all either on tv or on the web has mentioned how the debt ceiling will be handled. My bet is Boehner is giving it to zero all at once! Hope I am wrong.
This is the mo of the left. Ignore everything they want until they have it. They do it all the time. Midnight legislation.
This was the BEST sun AM show!
To watch Krugman was worth an ON DEMAND show I would pay to see! He was nervous, stupid and bumbling and actually at one point when asked a question, said, “Uh....”
Here comes Christeeeeen saying the texas terrorist guy “might’ be a radical Muslim, but in Norway “ there was a Right Wing Christian”..blah, blah...Now the conversation goes to discussing the Right wing terrorists!!!
Love it, “Unfair and Unbalanced.”...now bringing up a right wing terrorist -—ONE—in 2009.
Granholm is campaigning for government spending into prosperity. No surprise!
“Gretchen Carlson just grilled Garamendi (D-CA)”
Gretchen did an excellent job in her interview with Garamendi. I just wish that when the Dems start using their scare tactics about cutting Medicare, they and the public would be reminded that those who supported Obamacare have already consented to cutting half a trillion dollars in Medicare. It would be nice if the public heard this over and over until they understand just how disingenuous this argument is.
But we can’t. We just can’t. Eventually, we will run out of all and any other options or it goes completely belly up.
So my thinking is aligned with yours. We will not do what we have to, and we then will get what’s coming to us.
Hard, hard, hard.
I am personally trying to improve my finances by taking all kinds of odd jobs available to my profession. I am old and have an 11 and 15 year old at home. I am pissed at what life will be like for them, because of this ship of fools we are sailing with.
I have to have hope, God Bless us! What other nation, our Great Babylon, has so many Christians in it? Why would He forsake us? 2012 is the prayer now, and come, come sweet Jesus!
Meanwhile Linda Graham almost grew a set. He said we are now going in the wrong direction only slower, Christiannee was agasp and Steffy was stunned.
Linda:are we gonna become Greece?
Yesterday, I was reading up on Reid’s proposal. (I’m sure it has changed totally by now)....anyway....
The spending cuts in Reid’s plan were based on current law. The CBO deems the AMT fix is gone after 2011, Bush Tax cuts revert back, etc.. Republicans were estimating that the expired tax cuts would cost 3.8 Trillion in savings that Reid/dems were claiming.
The Joint Select Committee could then recommend legislative language on tax reform (read tax increases).
Has anyone heard whether this has changed?
She is a typical Socialist loser. No wonder there is such a mass exodus from Michigan.
OK, now the Bush tax cuts are withdrawn, and we all start paying more.
This is going to help the economy, how?
Crickets.
It will hurt it further. Obama said as much in December.
Their plans are just plain stupid. Their re-election hinges on things getting better. They WILL NOT. Ergo, dems lose.
Then Republicans have one chance to make things right, to reset us on the proper course. Do they? Who is our challenger?
2012 is indeed the end (or the beginning).
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