Posted on 08/02/2011 8:08:31 AM PDT by Mr.Unique
President Obama announced his debt deal with House Speaker John Boehner with a dramatic quote about the intensity of the cuts in the deal:
"The result would be the lowest level of annual domestic spending since Dwight Eisenhower was President — but at a level that still allows us to make job-creating investments in things like education and research."
The problem is that his dramatic statement was an outright lie.
Though Obama's statement sounded good, but a White House memo on the deal reveals his words to be false. It reads that the deal:
"... reduces Domestic Discretionary Spending to the Lowest Level Since Eisenhower: These discretionary caps will put us on track to reduce non-defense discretionary spending to its lowest level since Dwight Eisenhower was President."
That sounds similar, but non-defense discretionary spending is only one-eighth of total spending. Total federal spending is the highest it's been since World War II, both in real dollar terms and in terms of percentage of gross domestic product.
And this deficit deal would do nothing to change the perpetual increase in spending. It would pare only $900 billion from the estimated $8 trillion in expected deficits over the next 10 years, and establish a commission to come up with another trillion and a half in cuts on the increases.
Analysts noted that the President failed to mention that he was talking only about non-defense discretionary spending. In what critics say was no accident, he also failed to mention how much the debt limit would be increased by the deal. The American people would be shocked to learn that the deal would increase the national debt limit up $2.4 trillion, on top of the $14.3 trillion the country already has. And that would just last until after the 2012 elections ... perhaps.
The White House admittedly has an impossible task. President Obama is attempting to make his policy of deficit spending forever look like a responsible course. And no one can accomplish such a feat.
US Journalists cannot pry their lips off 0’s butt long enough to do any reporting.
"UNEXPECTED?"
This whole episode is really depressing. I remember during the Reagan administration the left accused Reagan of cutting, when of course he didn’t (he wanted to, but didn’t...).
But the rate of increase then is nothing compared to what it is now...and simultaneously, the shrieks from the left are many decibels louder. We have truly entered the realm of the surreal in our politics.
He's trying to time a complete collapse for whoever his republican successor becomes in 2016, or possibly 2012. He's working it pretty good too.
He's running America like it's Enron and he's trying to time his departure for the week before the doors are padlocked.
You'd think such an obvious and outright lie would have to be covered.
The dims changed their tactics but not their strategy when they won the house in 2006. In times past, they would raise taxes, then spend it all and then some.
This go round, they put trillions of spending into law and left the paying for it part for the repubs. This created a situation where either the law has to be repealed (difficult at best) or taxes have to be raised to crippling levels. When they lost the house in 2008, there were no lawsuits. The media didn’t cry foul. It was eerily quiet.
Now it makes sense. They left a scorched earth for the repubs to deal with and to take the blame. Raising the debt limit only makes the financial situation worse. The day of reckoning is coming and I believe that the dims are working to make sure it comes while the repubs have the house.
The dims are only loyal to their party and don’t give a damn is the country devolves into Argentina as long as they are the ones in power.
prepare.
One of Obama’s biggest lies here is that he has redefined a lot of spending as ‘mandatory’. Its another way of making the spending go on auto-pilot.
It’s like he’s trying to force more spending on us like a goose being turned into foie gras.
" I think when you spread the wealth around it's good for everybody. " ~Barack Obama
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“This go round, they put trillions of spending into law and left the paying for it part for the repubs. “
The Democrats concluded that they could just let the Bush tax cuts expire and that would be their tax hike.
Even with that gone, the debt will go up by $10 trillion under Obama.
“This whole episode is really depressing. I remember during the Reagan administration the left accused Reagan of cutting, when of course he didn’t (he wanted to, but didn’t...).”
Dont be depressed over the media lying about lowered baseline increases as ‘deep cuts’. That’s been the liberal media lie for decades.
Be depressed about a ‘deal’ that is supposedly a Tea Party ‘victory’ in which next year we will spend more than ever before AND borrow 40 cents on every dollar.
“We have truly entered the realm of the surreal in our politics.” Yes, we have. Bizarrely, the liberals think them getting 98% of the spending they asked for is a vicious cut.
I’m calling “BS” on another level, as well. I find it VERY hard to believe that domestic, non-defense, discretionary spending is below Eisenhower levels. That is certainly not true in absolute dollars and it is unlikely to be true in either inflation-adjusted dollars or, even, as a percentage of GDP.
Why aren’t people calling this a blatant lie? Are people just too stupid and detached to comprehend what a whopper this is? (Answer: Yes)
That’s been the liberal media lie for decades.”
Yes, of course, we have come to expect that.
It’s just that this time the disconnect between reality and their completely over the top rhetoric is greater than ever. And I’m not sure the American people have the attention span to see through it, because we are getting dumber as a country (in the aggregate).
So do I. As far as I can find (on the 'net) the entire budget back then topped out at just under $900 billion.
ping
Here’s a recalibration:
Consider the spending/GDP ratio as the basic benchmark.
If we spend 25% of GDP, that is a left-liberal Big Government spending program.
If we spend 20% of GDP, that is a centrist middle-of-the-road Government spending program.
If we spend 15% of GDP, that is a conservative smallish Government spending program.
We cut just a few tens of billions in FY2012, to keep us well in the Big Goverment level.
Here’s a recalibration:
Consider the spending/GDP ratio as the basic benchmark.
If we spend 25% of GDP, that is a left-liberal Big Government spending program.
If we spend 20% of GDP, that is a centrist middle-of-the-road Government spending program.
If we spend 15% of GDP, that is a conservative smallish Government spending program.
We cut just a few tens of billions in FY2012, to keep us well in the Big Goverment level.
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